Esmail v. Obama - Appellant's Public Brief Released
Today in Esmail v. Obama, a habeas merits appeal before the D.C.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
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Today in Esmail v. Obama, a habeas merits appeal before the D.C. Circuit, the petitioner's public brief became available. The petitioner, Yasein Khasem Mohammad Esmail, appeals from Judge Henry Kennedy's April 2010 decision denying his petition and June 2010 denial of his motion for reconsideration.
Esmail presents two questions for review:
1. Whether the district court committed reversible error in relying on petitioner-appellant's inculpatory statements, in view of evidence that these statements were the product of coercive abuse.
2. Whether the district court committed reversible error in concluding that petitioner-appellant was "part of Al Qaeda," in view of evidence that petitioner-appellant did not knowingly associate with Al Qaeda or take orders from Al Qaeda and did not fight with Al Qaeda or against the United States.
Larkin Reynolds is an associate at a D.C. law firm and was a legal fellow at Brookings from 2010 to 2011. Larkin holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as a founding editor of the Harvard National Security Journal and interned with the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and the National Security Division of the Department of Justice. She also has a B.A. in international relations from New York University.
