Convicted, Then Tried
November 19, 2009 at 11:04 AM Leave a comment
Jonathan Turley says what needs to be said about President Obama’s and Attorney General Eric Holder’s pronouncements that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be found guilty and given the death sentence:
Today, President Obama assured Americans that they should not be offended by trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal court because he will be convicted and executed. I will be discussing this story tonight on MSNBC Countdown.
In an interview with NBC News, Obama said those offended by the trial will not find it “offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.” He then appeared to recognize the impropriety of those remarks and said that he was “not going to be in that courtroom. That’s the job of the prosecutors, the judge and the jury.”
It is highly ironic that, in defending the noble decision to grant a fair trial to these men, Obama may have crossed the line in contributing to the prejudicial atmosphere against them. It is always a bad idea for a politician to comment on cases pre-trial.
I was a paralegal in my past life. Everyone in the legal community knows that it is entirely inappropriate for a government official to declare a defendant guilty (or not) before they have been tried, to say nothing of deciding in advance what their punishment will be.
Entry filed under: Laws / Judiciary, President Barack H. Obama and Co.. Tags: .
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