November 21, 2009
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Can Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Get A Fair Trial?
It was announced last week that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would stand trial for being the mastermind behind the Sept. 11th attacks.
He will be transferred to New York and tried there.
President Obama and the U.S. Attorney General have predicted that he would be convicted and executed. Here is the link: Link
I would think it would be important to any American that he gets a fair trial.
Do you think Khalid Sheikh Mohammed can get a fair trial in the U.S.?
Comments (64)
He should, as per our legal guidelines; but odds are he won’t. The US is pretty petty and vengeful; to the point where we’ll typically overlook our legal policies in favour of enacting swift, unmitigated justice. That and most are afraid some legal loophole will emerge that sets the motherfucker free. Such is the curse of legal litigation, and humanity.
I don’t think it would be possible for the jury to not already be biased on this one. I think a military trial would probably be a better option. At least then the people making the decision won’t be doing it based on emotion but hopefully based on evidence.
who cares? it’s not like anyone already has a biased opinion on this.
I think they should shave his head and chest, make a rope out of all the hair, and hang him from the nearest building.
After the fair trial of course.
what is there to have a trial about?!
he despises america and the people who occupy it. and he plotted and put together a plan that killed thousands of innocent people. id kill him myself if i could
@crystal_air - lmao
He’ll never get a fair trial unless he waxes his chest and back.
‘show trial’
He will never get an unbiased fair trial in the US….especially in NY. And who would be a jury of his peers?
Of course he deserves a trial.
@crystal_air - LOL win.
I disagree with the President and the Attorney General’s approach to this entire issue. But James Comey and Jack Goldsmith who worked for the Bush administration together made a compelling argument that Military Tribunals have resulted in only THREE convictions total and those who were convicted were sentenced to time served plus a few months. I think this was an overreaction to the accurate perception that the Bush DOJ was operating outside of the law…which Gitmo is.
These terror suspects though are not American citizens and should not have been protected by our due process laws. As much as it is blood thirsty to say it they do not deserve trials. If we know we have evidence tying them to attacking our troops then they should be executed plain and simple. No trial, no circus, a gun to the back of the head and get it over with. I have very strong beliefs when it comes to protecting rights and civil liberties…but not for these clowns…
I think it’s possible some jurors will be so eager to prove themselves unbiased there will be a deadlock.
Just shoot his ass.
@crystal_air - hahaha. i concur.
@Smichy420 - @Queen_of_You188 - @kvdubs - You know it would work. Look at the man! You could clothe children in Africa with all that!
Yep. Fair trail in NY, just like blacks got fair trials in the south.
I think the police escorting him should “accidentally” let him loose in NYC.
See the justice of the people.
I think the more important question here is will Justice get a fair trial? This whole sham of ignoring the military tribunals and bringing this terrorist to this country is the President’s way of shifting the focus from KSM’s actions to those of his predecessor’s administrations. I believe Obama will be every bit as tough on Khalid Mohammed as he was on other terrorists, like William Ayers.
@crystal_air - lord knows they need it.
Not with a press photo like that.
@BB61 - I second that.
I guess the question is does he deserve a fair trial? I don’t think so with the magnitude of what he did. Of course he is probably thinking go ahead and kill him so he can have his 72 virgins…boy is he gonna be pissed when he doesn’t get squat. Dan, I think on your would you have sex with him to save humanity woulda been a better pic to use lol Let him have a FAIR trial though and if the evidence is that overwhelming against him, and the people of New York don’t give an outcry at the injustice of NOT convicting a possitively guilty man, then it will show just how screwed up our system trully has become
Technically? Yes.
Pragmatically? No way.
@BB61 - You are SOOOO on to something
Dude someone get that guy a carpet cleaner from cosco or something.
No. There is no earthly punishment harsh enough for him.
Honestly no I don’t think he can get a fair trial in the US.
fair trial? fair trial? what about fair trial for our soldiers that are court martialed for doing their job? what about fair trial for campion and ramos? why were they sentenced to years in prison? what about fair trial for us? why does this scum bag deserve a fair trial? he should have been killed in the field, but we are a benevolent kind country that values life. this scum bag probably gets treated better in our custody than back home. this scum bag receives better treatment than our soldiers. we spend millions to prosecute our soldiers for doing their job. yet we spend millions to pander to this scum bag. kill him. this scum bag will hate you and me despite our apologetic plea for him to like us. what do we have to be apologetic for? for being a better country? for exploiting the talent of the people? i say shoot this scum bag and chop him us and send his parts to the heads of all islamic dictators starting with short holocaust denier. yeah. i hate how we bend over and let these scum bags rape our constitution and our land. no fair trial for this scum bag. i am tired of wilson’s pacifist attitude. we need TR’s rough riding attitude. if they don’t get out of our way rolll them over. i don’t mean everything i say yet i mean what i say. remember this scum bag is taking your tax money so that he can put on a show for us in our land. he will use your tax dollar to expose our military and intelligence secrets. he will exploit our constitution that he wishes to destroy. he will cite inhumane treatment to make us look bad while ignoring all the good humane treatment that was afforded him with our TAX MONEY. that is the money that you could have used to buy yourself a nice fat turkey and stuffing. that is the money you could have used to pay for your children’s school supply. the money that we need this scum bag is taking. he is laughing at us for being ideological fools that treat our enemies like our friends. this scum bag is a drain on our resources. this scum bag does not deserve a fair trial. not even a second to live. you can not redeem these people. only way to fight them is to kill them. only way to convert them to our causes is to kill them. sick bastards. kill.
@BB61 - Well said ditto!
@Leonidas - So what you are saying is, Gitmo is operating outside the law…….but that’s ok?
The US legal system is in no way fair. Innocent people get convicted all the time. Unfortunately it’s the best we have for right now.
Several points to consider:
If he elects for a jury trial, where will they find “a jury of his peers”?
Have people already assumed he is guilty? Personally, if I were a juror, I would want to see the evidence, and it would have to be pretty significant to remove all reasonable doubt. For one thing, this picture is not very flattering, and no offense (I am sure he takes better pictures) but he doesn’t look in these pictures like he could be a “mastermind” of such a complex plan.
The judge will need to be very upright and unbiased, otherwise there could be years and years of appeals.
I believe it will be as fair a trial as any trial ever is.
I am pleased that American is returning to the values of fair trials in the first place. No more picking people up, shoving them into Gitmo and keeping them indefinitely. Our values and law are bigger than any terrorist. If they hate and fear our freedoms, let us sic those same freedoms on them.
I also predict that he will be convicted and executed.
@phantomFive - No. In fact the opposite. Gitmo should have never been established. The torture techniques should have never been applied. But here with the War on terror (God I hated that term) make things so blurred when it came to the application of what the rules were supposed to be. President Bush not only violated several treaties but also US law and International Law. The fact he nor anyone in his administration will be held accountable disgusts me he should be in jail. Nevertheless these detainees being tried in a civilian court with the same rights according to US citizens is a method of dealing with their cases that is Politically convenient. They are foreign nationals who do not warrant the same protections you and I have as citizens. Furthermore and I pointed this out to Dan privately, we have killed hundreds of innocent civilians through airstrikes and drone attacks while trying to kill terrorists. To kill one Taliban leader we dropped an airstrike into a funeral march killed 86 people because one terrorist was marching openly with them. If the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan acted under the precedent we are setting here and if we are eager to show the ‘rule of law’ wouldn’t we have to prosecute our own soldiers who killed innocents?
Let me bottom line it. When it comes to this war we have been squishy and want it both ways. Either you are at war or you’re not. Either you have combatants or you have criminals…in war you can not have it both ways in my view. If you are at war then these combatants and terrorists should not be afforded the protection of our rule of law…
Could, yes. But Obama sure screwed up by saying what he did.
Fair trial and United States don’t belong in the same sentence.
yes o.o ?
@crystal_air - Absolutely agree ! He didn’t care about our nation .. Why should we care for him legally? I say we don’t waste our time and make him suffer! An eye for an eye !
@snikip296 - I’m all for eye for an eye.
I pray that he does, but we both know he won’t.
damn.
that is one hairy bastard.
if one show that picture of KSM to anyone he will be flogged and sent to death row for no reasons given. Well for what he did against US no excuses. Said that, will putting KSM to trail and afterwards to death or life imprisonment bring Al-Qaeda to their knees? Will it help to eradicate the Wahhabi ideology? The answers for these questions is a complicated NO. So it is better we don’t think about a fair trial now. As whatever trial KSM can get here in USA will be the fairest on he can get in any corner of the world. Its just that we should not politicize our security at all.
The Signature Of A True Human Is The Smile He/She Brings On The Face Of Others.
LonelyPoet
These comments might be proof that a fair trial is going to be incredibly difficult to construct. I think I could be on that jury though. I don’t know much about the guy to be honest.
A fair trial is highly unlikely especially since they are holding it in New York, was it? What they should really do is have some sort of neutral country hold a mass trial for all the people that died on 9/11 regardless of their nationality. I mean it’s not like only Americans died that horrific day. But sadly there is no such neutral country in existence since even noted neutral countries are going through such a massive period of Islamophobia.
What I truly believe is that whoever is chosen as a jury of his “peers,” they should not focus on his Muslim name or focus on his religion period but should focus on his heinous acts of terror and how sick of a person he is. But of course we all know the words “Muslim” and “Islam” are going to be tossed up in every news article imaginable involving KSM.
Sigh…
@suggestivetongue - That’s racist.
@x_harrii - You’re racist too.
@razzle_dazzle_lip_gloss - Pretty and your face never fit in the same mirror.
I pay my taxes. I am an American citizen. I have the right to due process in this country because of it. Why do those rights extend to this asshole?
Knowing our fair justice system a few jurors with Arabic names will be chosen just to make sure it is fair. Then there it goes…….. Hung jury. I think we should just lock him up and never give him a trial. Just make sure he never gets out. But we are too fair for such action here in the USA,
No…I think we are looking for a scapegoat to blame it on because of our failure to find Osama bin Laden.
They should take him and hang him no trial no waste of our money others then the 5 bucks for rope. Then make sure it’s video taped and have it be the only the that is played on the tvs in he country. So everyone can see that Americas serious and u dnt wanna mess with us. Cause the more nice we seem the more well get taken advantage of. So just hang him and get it over with!
It won’t matter if it’s a military or civilian jury – they’ll both be very biased and they’ll kill him. There won’t be a fair trial.
@Tr011 - You’re right. Drop-dead gorgeous and my face fit together fine.
Even if it were to be “fair” it won’t be. With what he did to our country should he even be alive?
As far as determining guilt or innocence sure. As long as they don’t have people with direct relatives who were lost in the twin towers.
I don’t think there is a possibility to plea bargain so his punishment would be about the same with any courtroom.
@Ashley_Roxy - That might be a reasonable argument, if there was anywhere in the world that thought America was too nice.
Even if he gets the fairest trial possible, the odds are that he will still be executed. Fair doesn’t mean “put a positive spin on the crime committed.” If the evidence shows he was behind 9/11, then he will get what he deserves.
Who cares! He already confessed!
That depends on KSM himself. If he takes the opportunity for a bit of grandstanding at the site of his greatest triumph and genuinely believes he has an eternity in paradise to look forward to then he’ll plead guilty. If he wants to make life awkward for the judicial system then the treatment he has received will make it easy for him to do so. All the evidence extracted by torture at Guantanamo will be inadmissible for a start.
Do they even have any proof that this guy planned the attacks or are they just using him?
Give him a fair trial NOT on American soil. Then send him to France or Canada.
Fair trial as in knowing that he planned the 9/11 attack? Yes. As far as sentencing goes let’s make it bloody and gruesome.
Um…in NY? A fair trial? Hell no, he won’t get a fair trial there. I mean, how many New Yorkers lost a friend or loved one in that nightmare? Or lost a job? Or had their health affected? Or know someone whose health was affected? How the heck are they supposed to find someone who can listen with an unbiased ear?
No, I think that constitutionally, he’s entitled to a change of venue. Actually, I think that it should be tried on a federal level anyway. What he did was an act of war, not knocking off the local mini mart. And what’s with Obama saying he’d be convicted and executed before the trial even starts? Since when does a president make that call?
I think the man is a slug and yes, he should be executed and his head placed on a pike in the middle of ground zero. But the laws in this country were created for everyone, not just the saints and angels. Somehow, some way, he needs a fair trial or as close to fair as we can muster.
he should just to shut everyone up