Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Brigadier General Hartmann Removed from Role in Military Tribunals:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_05_04-2008_05_10.shtml#1210436765
As covered in [1]prior posts, Col. Morris Davis, the former chief
prosecutor at Guantanamo, resigned his post alleging, among other
things, that military officers, including Brigadier General Thomas
Hartmann, were exercising undue influence over the conduct of the
trials of detainees and compromising the impartiality and fairness of
the military commissions. Now it appears that at least one military
judge concurs with Col. Davis' assessment. As the NYT reports:
The judge, Capt. Keith J. Allred of the Navy, directed that Brig.
Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann of the Air Force Reserve, a senior Pentagon
official of the Office of Military Commissions, which runs the war
crimes system, have no further role in the first prosecution,
scheduled for trial this month.
General Hartmann, whose title is legal adviser, has been at the
center of a bitter dispute involving the former chief Guantánamo
military prosecutor, Col. Morris D. Davis of the Air Force.
Colonel Davis has said the general interfered in the work of the
military prosecution office, pushed for closed-door proceedings and
pressed to rely on evidence obtained through techniques that
critics call torture.
�National attention focused on this dispute has seriously called
into question the legal adviser�s ability to continue to perform
his duties in a neutral and objective manner,� the judge wrote on
Friday, in a copy of the decision not released publicly but
obtained by The New York Times. Decisions by Guantánamo judges are
not typically released publicly until days after being handed down.
. . .
Ruling on a defense lawyers� request that said General Hartmann had
exerted unlawful influence over the prosecution, Judge Allred said
that public concern about the fairness of the cases was �deeply
disturbing� and that he could not find that the general �retains
the required independence from the prosecution.�
Pentagon officials could ask the judge to reconsider, could appeal
to a special military appeals court created to hear Guantánamo
cases or could replace General Hartmann.
General Hartmann has denied Colonel Davis�s assertions and said the
commission system would �follow the rule of law.� He has also said
he has pressed prosecutors and others involved in the tribunals to
move the cases more quickly. . . .
Judge Allred�s ruling followed a hearing in Guantánamo on April 28
at which Colonel Davis said General Hartmann pressured him in
deciding what cases to prosecute and what evidence to use. The
judge called the hearing after lawyers for a detainee, Salim
Hamdan, said his charges were unlawfully influenced.
References
1. http://www.volokh.com/posts/chain_1197328482.shtml
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
