Category Archives: Padilla

Padilla Hearing to Go To Third Round

Posted on January 6, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

David Marcus has the account of today’s Padilla hearing. The bottom line is that not much happened, and everyone is coming back on TuesdayThursday morning for best of three, in which Padilla will enter a plea and the Magistrate Judge will presumably rule on bail. (The US asked he be held without bail, no surprise there.)

There was one odd thing, though. As the Magistrate Judge prepared to appoint the Public Defender’s office as lead counsel, with Padilla’s current attorney (who’s not a member of the Florida bar) as co-counsel, the US Attorney’s office objected:

AUSA Stephanie Pell then told the Judge that there was a potential conflict with the Miami office accepting the appointment. [Chief Assistant Federal Defender Michael] Caruso said that his office has reviewed everything and that he could say “without equivocation” that there was no conflict. Garber took the matter up at sidebar and after conferring, he kept the Miami Defenders as lead counsel.

They’re playing hardball alright, but what on earth could they have been talking about?

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Will Padilla Get Bail Set Tomorrow?

Posted on January 5, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

David Oscar Markus — who I look forward to meeting some day — attended Padilla’s appearance today before Magistrate Judge Barry Garber.

Mr. Markus also has a separate post about Padilla’s co-defendant, Kifah Wael Jayyousi, having bail set by Judge Marcia Cooke. It’s $1.3 million, and there are other conditions — stay local, wear electronic monitoring — but release at all is a big win for him after years of very tight prison conditions.

However, Mr. Marcus didn’t address the to me more interesting (but speculative) question of whether Padilla — who after all is charged with pretty vague offenses that sound less serious than those of Jayyousi, his co-defendant — also might get bail tomorrow. Maybe even lower bail. Could he be on the street soon?

Admittedly, AFAIK there’s not so much in Padilla’s history to suggest he has the sort of ties to the community or general demenor that would make him a model citizen. Might even call him a bit of a risk. But perhaps, on the facts in evidence, no worse than many other hoodlums with a bit of a rap sheet?

[Disclaimer: I don’t do criminal law. Bail is a black box to me. Just wait till Mr. Markus sets me straight again….]

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Padilla is Here

Posted on January 5, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Padilla Brought to Face Civilian Charges: Jose Padilla is in Miami.

For a place so far, physically and psychologically, from the centers of financial and political power in this nation, we really are at the epicenter of all kinds of interesting things here in Miami.

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Padilla Indicted: A Bittersweet Moment for the Rule of Law (Updated)

Posted on November 22, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

As the legal world knows by now, the United States this morning unveiled an indictment against Jose Padilla, the man formerly known as the “dirty bomber” — to be tried here in Miami some time next year. (See Marty Lederman for details and atmosphere.) The Washington Post reports that “Padilla will be transferred from a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina to Justice Department custody at a federal detention facility in Miami, according to an order signed by Bush on Sunday,” which appears to be here, and which was followed by the government’s Unopposed Emergency Application and Notice of Release and Transfer to Custody of Petitioner Jose Padilla, filed today.

It’s a bittersweet moment for the rule of law. On the one hand, getting Padilla out of the ranks of the disappeared and into the ordinary criminal justice system is a good thing, and it’s mildly cheering that even this administration fears even this Supreme Court enough to want to prevent it from ruling on the asserted power to grab any citizen, anywhere, and hold him or her without regard to the Bill of Rights for as long as the President is minded to order.

On the other hand, this decision to charge comes rather late, at the eleventh hour, and risks leaving in place a circuit court decision with draconian implications for Presidential power. The precedent set by this case — including that of justice delayed to the point of denial — cannot, should not, must not be allowed to stand. So long as our government claims the power to lock any one of us up in solitary, indefinitely, without trial, on the unsupported say-so of any official no matter how highly placed, we can give ourselves no airs before the other authoritarian regimes of the Americas.

Although originally rumored more than a year ago (!) the latest moves in the Padilla case are striking developments in several ways.

Continue reading →

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