Crime and Punishment

It’s been reported that the administration is pushing to have military tribunals start ten days after the Republican National Convention. Defense attorneys are complaining that they still have not received a security clearance, and have had limited time to meet with their clients.

I have recently been reading a biography of Justice Robert H. Jackson. He was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and served as a prosecutor at the Nurnberg war trials. The following are, I believe, some still highly relevant quotes about the need for fair tribunals:

We must not use the forms of judicial proceedings to carry out or rationalize previously settled political or military policy. Farcical judicial trials conducted by us will destroy confidence in the judicial process as quickly as those conducted by other people.

Gitmo has already lowered our reputation for fairness in the world. These tribunals as set up will continue to do damage. Justice Jackson comments further on fair tribunals:

But further, you must put no man on trial if you are not willing to hear anything relevant that he has to say in his defense and to make it possible for him to obtain evidence form others. The ultimate principle is that you must put no man on trial under the forms of judicial proceedings if you are not willing to see him freed if not proven guilty. If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for a trial; the world yields no respect to courts that are organized merely to convict.

Sadly the current administration, and many others do not seem to either know or place much value in the important lessons of our past. (America’s Advocate: Robert H. Jackson, Gerhart, 1958, pg. 317).