Obama NEW speedy military court system - New England Patriots Forums

***NEPatriot*** · 06-08-2009, 12:07 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us...o.html?_r=2&hp

Quote:

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy.

Some experts on the commissions said such a proposal would raise new questions about the fairness of a system that has been criticized as permitting shortcuts to assure convictions.

David Glazier, an associate professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who has written about the commission system, said: “This unfortunately strikes me as an effort to get rid of the problem in the easiest way possible, which is to have those people plead guilty and presumably be executed. But I think it’s going to lack international credibility.”

Welcome to democracy !

Stokes · 06-08-2009, 01:15 PM

Haven't read the full article yet, but to me this sounds like maybe a good idea. If you were captured and charged for war crimes or something of the sort, and you admit to perpetrating those crimes, why not allow a guilty plea and execution?

I guess one argument against it would be the potential for mistreatment of prisoners to coerce guilty pleas, or the fact that some innocents may plead guilty to be martyred for their cause. Overall though it sounds sensible on its face.