Legal Commentary

Najibullah Zazi to Plead Guilty and Cooperate

By Jeralyn

Najibullah Zazi, the Denver man accused of terror-related offenses in the Eastern District of New York, has begun cooperating and will plead guilty at 2:30 pm today to an as-yet unspecified charge.

So he had lawyers from day 1, waived his Miranda rights, wasn't tortured, and is now cooperating and pleading guilty. He's going to get a reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation. The U.S. gets the benefit of his knowledge. He gets punished and incarcerated.

All of this in a federal criminal court with him being provided his full panoply of constitutional rights.

This is the same scenario tha will play out with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The same can and should be done with the 9/11 defendants. It's too late to undo the torture they underwent, but DOJ says it has a winnable case without the compromised statements. There's no need for military tribunals with reduced rights for the accused. Our federal courts work just fine.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 22, 2010 (boomark / email).