Convening Authority Invalidates Military Commission Conviction
It seems the D.C. Circuit's commission jurisprudence is kicking in.
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It seems the D.C. Circuit's commission jurisprudence is kicking in. Here's the news from The Miami Herald's Carol Rosenberg:
A retired Marine general responsible for the Guantánamo war court has overturned the terror conviction through plea bargain of a Sudanese man who was sent home a little over a year ago as a war criminal, the Pentagon disclosed Friday. In 2011, Noor Uthman Mohammed pleaded guilty to providing material support for terror in in exchange for his potential testimony against other captives and certain release from Guantánamo. ... Friday, a Pentagon announcement said the Convening Authority for Military Commissions, a job currently held by retired Marine Maj. Gen. Vaughn A. Ary, threw out the case “in the interests of justice and under the rule of law.” Civilian courts have ruled that providing material support for terror was not a legitimate war crime for actions that occurred before the adoption of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It was adopted by Congress during the Bush administration to try to prosecute accused war criminals of al-Qaida captured after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Wells C. Bennett was Managing Editor of Lawfare and a Fellow in National Security Law at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to Brookings, he was an Associate at Arnold & Porter LLP.
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