JUDGE THROWS OUT TERROR CHARGE IN PADILLA CASE

[kpete]

Judge throws out terror charge in Padilla case
BY JAY WEAVER

The U.S. government's high-profile terror case against Jose Padilla and two other Muslims has suffered another serious setback as their Miami trial looms in January.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke threw out the first count in the indictment -- that the threesome conspired to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country -- saying it repeated the main alleged ''conspiracy to advance violent jihad'' in two other charges.

''There can be no question that the government has charged a single conspiracy offense multiple times, in separate counts, when in law and in fact, only one crime has been committed,'' Cooke wrote in an eight-page ruling released to prosecutors and defense lawyers on Monday.

''The danger raised by a multiplicitous indictment is present in the instant indictment,'' she wrote, stressing that it violates the ''double jeopardy'' clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution -- the prosecution or punishment of a defendant twice for the same offense.


more at:
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/1532...

[eleny]

1. whoa

[berni_mccoy]

2. "Is she black and appointed by Carter?" That's the first question

The repukes will ask... just wait.

[fooj]

4. Appointed by Little Lord Pissypants!

BWAHAHAHA! How are they going to SPIN that?

[swag]

A prescient blog entry from last November about the judge

http://sdfla.blogspot.com/2005/11/marcia-cooke-in-spotl...

I've received a bunch of emails from out-of-towners asking about Judge Cooke, the newest judge in this District, and drawing interest because she is the judge assigned to Jose Padilla's case. One of the comments asks whether the government was "judge-shopping" and others like Prof. Froomkin have flat out said that the government specifically selected Judge Cooke by adding Padilla to a superceding indictment. Perhaps DOJ looked at Judge Cooke's resume and saw that she was a Bush appointee and a former AUSA and thought that she would be a push-over for the feds. Froomkin (who I doubt has ever appeared before her) goes so far as to say "the government should not expect a hostile bench." If this is what the government thought, it is dead wrong. Judge Cooke -- to put it in Chief Justice Roberts' words -- calls a strike a strike and a ball a ball, and will not be pushed around by the government. She is known in this community as a fair judge who listens carefully to both sides and calls it right down the middle. She is well liked by criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors alike.

[goforit]

15. Thanks for the biography. The Gov't is definitely Judge shopping!

And once again doing a sloppy job at it.

Poor widdle Cheney ain't getting his cake and eat it too.

The poor sap!

[larrysh]

7. Good....another innocent victim of a phony attack on the WTC

And Dem candidates in the upcoming election need to start pounding into
voter's heads that the attack on the WTC was engineered by our own government.....Osama is an actor, there is no war on terror!!!!!!!!!

[unda cova brutha]

9. yes

[karlrschneider]

8. She is black, appointed by Chimp

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-06-08-federal-...

[KingFlorez]

11. LOL!

One of the Bush's judges that they threw tantrums to get appointed

[DeSwiss]

10. berni_mccoy, well you got one out of two....

She's black, but was nominated and approved by the Senate in 2004:

http://www.mdc.edu/Home/Press/MDC+Trustee.htm

http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov/default.asp?file=press.asp

[myrna minx]

3. Wow. just wow. This has been a difficult week for baby bushie.

n/t

[matcom]

13. and it's only MONDAY!!

[myrna minx]

14. Heh. It looks like it's time for a another vacation.

[la la]

19. I DID read in

The Orange County Register that he was going to Kennebunkport this coming weekend. Phase 3 of his vacation?

Someone hide the Segways. heh heh

[myrna minx]

25. And hide the stairs, door frames and pretzels.

If he wasn't such an asshole, he would be just pathetic.

[xxqqqzme]

5. damn activist judges - always following

that 'damn old piece of paper'.

Another woman steps up!

[karlrschneider]

6. 5...4...3...2...1 counting for the vitriol from the RW on another

"activist" "leftist"...judge.
grrr

[LA lady]

12. Seems pretty meaningless

They were just double jeopardy charges


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[blogslut]

16. true dat

However, the headlines leave a mark:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=h... /

Judge drops Padilla terror charge

Judge throws out terror charge in Padilla case

Judge throws out 1 charge in Jose Padilla terror case

One charge thrown out against suspected al-Qaida operative

[shain from kane]

17. " ... when in law and in fact, only one crime has been committed ..."

What happened to innocent until proven guily? Was a crime even committed?

[ThomCat]

18. I saw that and wondered the same thing.

What is a judge doing declaring that a crime was committed before the trial even begins?

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

22. If somebody gets robbed, a crime has been committed

What you can't do is to presume somebody is guilty of that crime prior to their day in court.

Except for those poor SOBs in Gitmo.

[bulletsandspikes]

20. It's all falling apart for them.

They're losing everything. Fucking liars.

[bulletsandspikes]

21. I just checked Fox News and they aren't reporting this.

No surprise.

[karlrschneider]

23. You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din

Welcome to DU.

[bulletsandspikes]

26. I just love to see the shit they don't report.

Sometimes when i'm really bored I'll even read from there. Ok that's just a joke.

[stop the bleeding]

24. TERRA TERRA TERRA

waiting for terra alert