The Justice Department is once again being threatened with contempt of court after United States District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan found that they withheld evidence from the defense that a witness in a “significant” number of cases was mentally disturbed. Judge Sullivan found that the testimony of the detainee was unreliable, could be challenged in other cases, and could be the basis for a possible contempt order against the government.
In the wake of the Stevens case, this ruling in the case of Aymen Saeed Batarfi, a Yemeni doctor, received little attention. However, like Stevens, the Justice Department has announced that it would no longer seek to detain the doctor. As in Stevens, the move appears to protect the Justice Department from further judicial inquiry over the misconduct of government officials and, also like the Stevens case, there is no indication that the responsible officials will be disciplined or fired.
In the hearing, Sullivan stated “To hide relevant and exculpatory evidence from counsel and from the court under any circumstances, particularly here where there is no other means to discover this information and where the stakes are so very high . . . is fundamentally unjust, outrageous and will not be tolerated . . . How can this court have any confidence whatsoever in the United States government to comply with its obligations and to be truthful to the court?”
Judge Sullivan refused to allow the government to continue to play games with the system and called its actions “still another ploy . . . to continue with his deprivation of his fair day in court.” He ordered review of the case every 14 days and threatened to impose a contempt sanction if the Justice Department continued to violate federal rules.
For the full story, click here.
Centurion:
I have no desire to have the last word. Let’s just leave the conversation with your final sage comment:
” Your limited and substandard education would preclude your entry into this highly scientific and academically rigorous discipline.”
Definitive, yet compassionate. That’s how I like to remember you– the consummate man of reason, aplomb, and grace.
You will never be able to prescribe medications Mike A., you need to go to medical school in order to do that. Your limited and substandard education would preclude your entry into this highly scientific and academically rigorous discipline.
Centurion, thank you for your kind words. I am pleased to have eased your anxiety without the necessity of dangerous, mind-altering medications.
Last night I slept better than I have in years. Just knowing that Mike Appleton was keeping “me” safe from the impending threat of totalitarianism gave me great peace of mind. Have a coke and a smile Mike A.
That’s right stonehead, make sure you get the last word in. Grow up Mespo…………
cenurion:
“Mespo. You have successfully auditioned for and won the coveted role of biggest windbag.”
*******************
Had I a wit as razor sharp as yours, I suspect all my friends would call me “marble.”
Rafflaw, go back to your yellow stained copy of “Simple Justice Brown vs. board of Education”. The society we live in is bigger and more complex than your pea-brain can comprehend.
Dr. Wales, I think you have a future client in “anonymously yours”. This person is speaking in a schizotypal speech pattern, and probably needs some thorazine to take the cuckoo bird edge off.
Centurion,
Yeah, after you claim we are all useless or criminals, then you say let’s make nice. I don’t think so. BTW. good work Mespo and Buddha.
I don’t like graham crackers, not since Phil Graham was a Sen from Texas.
But I do like following Ambulances maybe its that canine in me. I have not to the best of my ability bitten a postman. But Dr. Freud said that was the next session.
Can anybody tell me why be has powered sugar in a bowl on his table by his desk. That was the smallest spoon I have ever seen. I think I will bring him a box of Kleenex the next time as I think his allegories were acting up. He kept sucking his snot back in. I hope he get well though. Maybe he will be better the next time we meet.
Now now, I want all the good little ambulance chasers to make nice with the head-shrinkers. I want everyone to play nice,or no graham crackers before bed. TTFN.
Oh yippie we are having a parade, did someone say pass the baton?
Or is that a covert word that I do not understand, which could be understood if, I knew a Navajo who could probably tell me it was really a word that meant pass the peyote because we are having a seriously held religious experience.
Or could it mean that someone’s got some really bad shit, which I understand to be good weed.
Not really kiddin.
Centurion,
The curriculum at Northwestern is rigorous, but that same University has a well known Law School that is producing attorneys that the Northwestern PHD above claims are the cause for all of our problems. Noone is attacking the Wildcats. We are merely pointing out the nonsensical arguments of one PHD from Northweastern.
Centurion, although you undoubtedly do not understand this, lawyers are the only people who stand between you and totalitarianism. Or perhaps you subscribe to Dr. Wales’ belief in anarchy, in which case you’re both on your own.
Uh-oh, I think all the ambulance chasers got there panties in a bunch over this one. I love it! My cousin went to Northwestern and received her PH.D. in Clinical Psychology and chairs the Psych. Department at a major midwestern university. She is also published and I can attest that this University is not for the faint of heart. Rock on Dr. Wales!
Mespo. You have successfully auditioned for and won the coveted role of biggest windbag. Looks like your buddy Buddha may have to pass the baton!
If Mr. Wales thinks that all lawyers should be sent to Iraq to serve in the armed forces, why stop there? Why shouldn’t all doctors and PHD’s be sent there as well? And are you suggesting that a war that was started over lies promulgated by George W. Bush and Co., should be used as a punishment for what you deem are the problems of our Justice system? Isn’t that insulting our troops that have fought and died there?
To state that there are only a few good lawyers is not only incorrect, but foolish. As a man of science, how did you test your hypothesis and what evidence was uncovered to bring you to your radical and sick outcome?
Finally, your wish for absolutely no laws is a brilliant one. Because as you state,”People are better than the law – just as they are. I would rather deal with the street king than a cop, judge or any attorney.” I think our country has dealt with “street kings”. A more precise title might be organized crime boss. That is a very enlightened view of the state of the country especially coming from a Northwestern grad. Maybe you can get some help for your problem.
Buddha, I think I need to give up. You seem to have an implanted troll radar. I routinely take these guys seriously, attempt to respond in kind and wind up with nothing to show for the effort. Maybe I should wait for you to vet some of these posts before I weigh in.
Come up with some new tactics, geniuses. You are starting to bore me.
The good doctor of psychology edifies us that:
“I would like to see ALL attorneys shipped to Iraq and put into combat regardless of age, gender, race. Let them fend for themselves in an environment they do not understand. Let them see how the average person feels in a courtroom. Even our precious constitution states article, the 14th I think, against cruel and unusual punishment.{ah, that would be the 8th Amendment to your “precious Constitution.”] The courts routinely mete out the most cruel and unnecessary findings, think themselves sterile and above their work. And so, when I read one good deed by some judge, I can only think of all the times he/she/it crushed some poor soul wholly absent of the anonymity of the black robe.” [commentary and emphasis added]
and a then a few posts later:
“And I realize there are good lawyers out there.”
My, my, how to reconcile the two contradictory statements:
1. Robert Wales is an overgeneralizing, blubbering sentimentalist with no idea of what he’s talking or a slanderous knave with some personal axe to grind.
2. Robert Wales is intentionally pulling our leg with these nonsensical statements.
3. Robert Wales is auditioning for the role of Dr. Cornelia Wibur in the remake of “Sybil.” Joanne Woodward was much better I suspect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72g7fdgQtyw
I’ll vote #1.