The Sham of the Padilla Trial
Bill Haymin
April 30, 2007
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Jury selection in the Jose Padilla case is now under way in federal district court in Miami, but the trial is nothing more than a sham. Why? Because no matter how the jury rules, Padilla is almost certain to remain incarcerated for a long time.
If Padilla is convicted by the jury, the judge will likely sentence him to serve much of the rest of his life in a federal penitentiary for having conspired to violate federal criminal laws against terrorism.
On the other hand, if Padilla is acquitted, the U.S. military is likely to exercise its post-9/11-acquired power to declare Americans (and foreigners) "enemy combatants" in the war on terror and throw Padilla back into a military dungeon. That is where he was before the government, as part of a clever legal maneuver that was obviously designed to avoid Supreme Court review of Padilla's request for habeas-corpus relief, converted him from an "enemy combatant" in the war on terror to a federal-court criminal defendant charged with violating federal terrorism laws.
While the military, of course, could decline to exercise its power to retake Padilla into custody after an acquittal by the jury, that course of action is unlikely given the government's repeated assertion that Padilla is one of the world's most dangerous terrorists.
So either way the jury rules — guilty or not guilty — the result is almost certain to be the same — Padilla's stay in jail is likely to be greatly prolonged.
Prior to 9/11, if a criminal defendant, including one accused of terrorism, was found not guilty by a federal jury, he would walk out of court a free man. That was the whole idea behind the right of trial by jury that was guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. However, the government's post-9/11 "enemy-combatant" doctrine, which was upheld by the conservative Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Padilla's habeas corpus proceedings, revolutionized our judicial system by giving the military the power to take Americans (and foreigners) into custody as "enemy combatants," including those who have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a duly selected and impaneled jury in federal district court.
Obviously, the government would prefer that Padilla be convicted by the jury because then the citizenry can simply assume that the federal system is operating normally. No alarm bells would go off, as they would if U.S. military officials carted Padilla out of federal court after a jury announced a verdict of "not guilty."
If the military should reclaim custody of Padilla after a jury in federal district court has acquitted him, everyone will be able to easily recognize the raw military power that now hangs over the American citizenry, including the power to orchestrate sham criminal justice proceedings in federal district court, ignore federal jury verdicts, and indefinitely incarcerate Americans (and foreigners) accused of terrorism in some military hellhole.
Those who traded away our rights and freedoms for safety after 9/11 would undoubtedly respond to all this with "So what if the military now wields omnipotent power over the citizenry? Security is more important than freedom. Anyway, the military can be trusted not to abuse its powers over the citizenry, and federal officials have promised to restore our rights and freedoms as soon as the terrorist crisis is over."
Those American ancestors of ours who crafted the Sixth Amendment and the rest of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, who understood that the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of the American people was the federal government, and who never would have dreamed of trading their freedom for safety, must be turning over in their graves.
Send him email. www.fff.org Copyright, 2007
Jacob G. Hornberger
Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at The Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, publisher of The Freeman.
In 1989, Mr. Hornberger founded The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is a regular writer for The Foundation's publication, Freedom Daily. Fluent in Spanish and conversant in Italian, he has delivered speeches and engaged in debates and discussions about free-market principles with groups all over the United States, as well as Canada, England, Europe, and Latin America, including Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Argentina.
He has also advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on FOX New's Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows.
His editorials have appeared in the Washington Post, Charlotte Observer, La Prensa San Diego, El Nuevo Miami Herald, and many others, both in the United States and in Latin America.
He is a co-editor or contributor to the eight books that have been published by the Foundation.
Mission
The mission of The Future of Freedom Foundation is to advance freedom by providing an uncompromising moral and economic case for individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government.
Declaration of Principles
The United States was founded on the principles of individual freedom, free markets, private property, and limited government. As the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution reflect, individuals have the natural and God-given right to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is peaceful. It is the duty of government to protect, not destroy, these inherent and inalienable rights.
Thus, for well over a century, the American people said "No" to such anti-free-market government policies as income taxation, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, immigration controls, economic regulations, drug laws, gun control, public schooling, and foreign wars. Despite the tragic exception of slavery, the result was the most prosperous, healthy, literate, and compassionate society in history. Unfortunately, in the 20th century, our country has moved in an opposite direction. Operating through the IRS, DEA, ATF, INS, FDA, FTC , and a multitude of other bureaucracies, our government has waged immoral and destructive wars on our freedom, our property, and our well-being.
It has seduced us into believing that we cannot live without this political paternalism. It has weakened our moral fiber and our sense of self-reliance, self-esteem, voluntary charity, and community. It has damaged our families. It has hurt the poorest people in society. It has turned foreigners into enemies. It has trampled on our Constitution. It has undermined our commitment to the moral foundations of freedom and to the benefits of free markets.
The time has come for us to reevaluate our relationship to our government — to repeal, not reform, these immoral and destructive government programs — to recapture our commitment to the principles of free markets, private property, voluntary charity, and limited government that made our nation great — and to believe in ourselves again. It is time for us once again to lead the world to the highest reaches of freedom in history. It is to this end that The Future of Freedom Foundation is dedicated.
Presented by Bill Haymin, 2007
Jury selection in the Jose Padilla case is now under way in federal district court in Miami, but the trial is nothing more than a sham. Why? Because no matter how the jury rules, Padilla is almost certain to remain incarcerated for a long time.
If Padilla is convicted by the jury, the judge will likely sentence him to serve much of the rest of his life in a federal penitentiary for having conspired to violate federal criminal laws against terrorism.
On the other hand, if Padilla is acquitted, the U.S. military is likely to exercise its post-9/11-acquired power to declare Americans (and foreigners) "enemy combatants" in the war on terror and throw Padilla back into a military dungeon. That is where he was before the government, as part of a clever legal maneuver that was obviously designed to avoid Supreme Court review of Padilla's request for habeas-corpus relief, converted him from an "enemy combatant" in the war on terror to a federal-court criminal defendant charged with violating federal terrorism laws.
While the military, of course, could decline to exercise its power to retake Padilla into custody after an acquittal by the jury, that course of action is unlikely given the government's repeated assertion that Padilla is one of the world's most dangerous terrorists.
So either way the jury rules — guilty or not guilty — the result is almost certain to be the same — Padilla's stay in jail is likely to be greatly prolonged.
Prior to 9/11, if a criminal defendant, including one accused of terrorism, was found not guilty by a federal jury, he would walk out of court a free man. That was the whole idea behind the right of trial by jury that was guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. However, the government's post-9/11 "enemy-combatant" doctrine, which was upheld by the conservative Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Padilla's habeas corpus proceedings, revolutionized our judicial system by giving the military the power to take Americans (and foreigners) into custody as "enemy combatants," including those who have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a duly selected and impaneled jury in federal district court.
Obviously, the government would prefer that Padilla be convicted by the jury because then the citizenry can simply assume that the federal system is operating normally. No alarm bells would go off, as they would if U.S. military officials carted Padilla out of federal court after a jury announced a verdict of "not guilty."
If the military should reclaim custody of Padilla after a jury in federal district court has acquitted him, everyone will be able to easily recognize the raw military power that now hangs over the American citizenry, including the power to orchestrate sham criminal justice proceedings in federal district court, ignore federal jury verdicts, and indefinitely incarcerate Americans (and foreigners) accused of terrorism in some military hellhole.
Those who traded away our rights and freedoms for safety after 9/11 would undoubtedly respond to all this with "So what if the military now wields omnipotent power over the citizenry? Security is more important than freedom. Anyway, the military can be trusted not to abuse its powers over the citizenry, and federal officials have promised to restore our rights and freedoms as soon as the terrorist crisis is over."
Those American ancestors of ours who crafted the Sixth Amendment and the rest of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, who understood that the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of the American people was the federal government, and who never would have dreamed of trading their freedom for safety, must be turning over in their graves.
Send him email. www.fff.org Copyright, 2007
Jacob G. Hornberger
Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at The Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, publisher of The Freeman.
In 1989, Mr. Hornberger founded The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is a regular writer for The Foundation's publication, Freedom Daily. Fluent in Spanish and conversant in Italian, he has delivered speeches and engaged in debates and discussions about free-market principles with groups all over the United States, as well as Canada, England, Europe, and Latin America, including Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Argentina.
He has also advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on FOX New's Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows.
His editorials have appeared in the Washington Post, Charlotte Observer, La Prensa San Diego, El Nuevo Miami Herald, and many others, both in the United States and in Latin America.
He is a co-editor or contributor to the eight books that have been published by the Foundation.
Mission
The mission of The Future of Freedom Foundation is to advance freedom by providing an uncompromising moral and economic case for individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government.
Declaration of Principles
The United States was founded on the principles of individual freedom, free markets, private property, and limited government. As the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution reflect, individuals have the natural and God-given right to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is peaceful. It is the duty of government to protect, not destroy, these inherent and inalienable rights.
Thus, for well over a century, the American people said "No" to such anti-free-market government policies as income taxation, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, immigration controls, economic regulations, drug laws, gun control, public schooling, and foreign wars. Despite the tragic exception of slavery, the result was the most prosperous, healthy, literate, and compassionate society in history. Unfortunately, in the 20th century, our country has moved in an opposite direction. Operating through the IRS, DEA, ATF, INS, FDA, FTC , and a multitude of other bureaucracies, our government has waged immoral and destructive wars on our freedom, our property, and our well-being.
It has seduced us into believing that we cannot live without this political paternalism. It has weakened our moral fiber and our sense of self-reliance, self-esteem, voluntary charity, and community. It has damaged our families. It has hurt the poorest people in society. It has turned foreigners into enemies. It has trampled on our Constitution. It has undermined our commitment to the moral foundations of freedom and to the benefits of free markets.
The time has come for us to reevaluate our relationship to our government — to repeal, not reform, these immoral and destructive government programs — to recapture our commitment to the principles of free markets, private property, voluntary charity, and limited government that made our nation great — and to believe in ourselves again. It is time for us once again to lead the world to the highest reaches of freedom in history. It is to this end that The Future of Freedom Foundation is dedicated.
Presented by Bill Haymin, 2007
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