Legal Commentary

Another Hung Jury in Alleged Plot to Bomb Sears Tower

By TChris

It's strike two against the government in its misguided effort to convict six alleged terrorists charged in Miami with conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. The government's first attempt ended in a mistrial for the six defendants -- a seventh was acquitted. Hoping to overcome the embarrassment of blowing the prosecution of a case that Alberto Gonzales announced with great fanfare, federal prosecutors tried again -- and again the jury hung, producing a second mistrial.

The outcome isn't surprising, given the lack of evidence that the alleged terrorists had the resources or ability to launch an attack, and the strong suggestion in the evidence that they were goaded into making terrorism-related statements by undercover FBI agents. (more ...)

Testimony showed that a search by the F.B.I. of what it called the group’s headquarters did not find guns, explosives or blueprints for an attack. Jurors also heard defense lawyers emphasize that the defendants made their most aggressive comments in response to questions or comments by a bureau agents posing as operatives of Al Qaeda and offering $50,000 to help the plot.

There's an interesting difference between the print version of the linked article and the online version. Online, the article contains this sentence:

Legal analysts called the outcome a significant defeat for the Bush administration, especially its publicizing of terrorism arrests.

The print version (in the NYT National edition, buried on page A23) says:

Legal analysts called the outcome a significant defeat for the Bush administration, especially in turning terrorism arrests into publicity events.

This "legal analyst," at least, agrees with the harsher assessment in the print version. Terrorism arrests on weak evidence make for great press conferences, but they lead to terrorism "show trials" that sap the nation's resources without making the country safer. Isn't it time for the Justice Department to start focusing on real threats and to stop manufacturing mountains out of anthills just to obtain the publicity value of another terrorism arrest?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 17, 2008 (boomark / email).