I am not in the know so didn’t see this coming! I wonder what benefit they’ll derive here.
I meant though they’re not going to get executed, I can’t see how they would ever get released either.
Given the problematic nature of the captives detainees’ legal status- neither P.O.W.s nor civilian defendants- it’s hard to see the USA as administering impartial justice. Particularly anything they supposedly “agreed” to must be taken with a large boulder of halite.
I’d be interested to know what they thought they were gaining with a guilty plea. They’re either going to spend the rest of their lives in Guantanamo Bay or, if that’s shut down, in the ADX Florence Supermax.
No death penalty
From what I’ve read about ADX Florence, death would be far preferable to a life sentence there.
They apparently disagree. I wouldn’t want to make that choice
Given the 23 years it took, could they argue their constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated? Unless they don’t qualify for constitutional rights.
Not if the delays were their doing.
Wasn’t this a big issue for Republicans when it came up before? They seemed to think that these guys have superpowers and can easily bust out of any jail in the continental US.
No, their lawyers could bust them out of any jail in the continental US. Hence the use of Guantanamo: under US control but technically foreign soil.
ADX Florence? That place is unbreakable even with a small army.
This keeps open the possibility of them being released in some kind of an exchange, like say their terrorist buddies hijack planes and threaten to kill the passengers one by one unless they are released.
That would not be a possibility if they got the death penalty.
I used to know this stuff almost two decades ago, and the article wasn’t clear enough.
But they committed war crimes and were tried in a military tribunal. They plead guilty to those war crimes. So no real constitutional rights, no federal crimes, speedy trial, etc.
Not sure they would be held in a federal prison after sentencing.
I’d guess, for reasons, they might serve their time in another country somehow, or in a different military prison (that’s not named Guantanamo).
Defence Secretary Austin has stepped in and revoked the plea deal:
“Keeping these guys in jail forever isn’t good enough! We’re going to keep them in jail forever instead!”
Two years of negotiating a plea deal. All down the tubes.
Probably the backlash by 9/11 families to having the death penalty not an option caused a political response to nix the deal.
If the death penalty was on the table, was there any true sign that the US government was going to implement it?
US military appeals court rules that Def Sec Austin does not have the authority to overrule the plea deals.
The appeal is probably moved, as the article suggests, to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington. I wonder what odds one might take for a sustain/turnover.