When Bruck asked McCall if he was aware of this, McCall gave a solemn nod and quietly said, “yessir.”Īfter attorneys had a chance to object to McCall presiding over the case – three defense attorneys objected, one did not object, one deferred and the prosecution did not object – McCall began debate on one of the many outstanding motions in the case – about how much detail defense attorneys will be able to get from the US government regarding interrogations of the detainees while they were in CIA custody at so-called black sites.
McCall has not read all of the thousands of pages of legal documents associated with his new case, he told attorneys when asked.ĭavid Bruck, who recently became the lead defense attorney for detainee Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, accurately summed up the two paths McCall’s career could take if he remains the presiding judge for the case.īruck said McCall could either be the judge who unties the “Gordian Knot of the 9/11 case, bring it to trial” and bring justice to the family members of victims who died in the terror attacks, or it could go down “the other road,” where the case “went nowhere and it happened on your watch.” McCall also said he did not know about the legal history of the death penalty, but that he plans to take a course on it this fall. He did not display a deep knowledge of the issues surrounding the case, saying he had not read the congressional 9/11 Commission report or the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report about CIA detention and interrogation, both released during the Obama administration. McCall said he did not have experience working on a case involving torture but said he did have experience working with clients who had experienced trauma because he worked on many military sexual assault cases. “Those are things we deal with on a day-to-day basis.”Īlleged 9/11 plotters, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, appear at Guantanamo pretrial hearingĪll five men suffer from different health issues because of the torture they endured while in CIA custody, according to their lawyers. “The effects of torture are only always in the room,” Gary Sowards, lead counsel for Mohammed, said on Wednesday. They serve specific terms when they are given postings.Īll five detainees could face the death penalty, and all five were brutally tortured. Both prosecuting attorneys representing the US government and defense attorneys representing the detainees questioned McCall about his experience and background knowledge of issues in the case.īecause this is a military commission, judges are appointed by the military and are a part of the military. He was later reappointed by the military to the case in August, after he had acquired two years of experience as a judge. McCall recused himself after that, because he did not want to be the reason the case was held up any longer, he said in court this week. The prosecution objected to McCall’s initial appointment in October 2020 because he did not have the required two years of experience needed to preside over a military commission case. Whether or not McCall should preside over the case has been a major subject at the pretrial hearings this week as lawyers from both sides questioned his suitability. Four judges have presided over in-person hearings in the case, including the latest judge to take it on, Judge Col. There are dozens of outstanding motions, and lawyers on both the prosecution and defense teams have come and gone in the almost decade of litigation. While the men were arraigned in 2012 during the Obama administration, the case has dragged on for years. The five accused, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – who has been dubbed the mastermind behind the attacks, have been detained and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since 2006. In the last hearing of the week on Friday, lawyers debated one of several outstanding motions about what evidence defense attorneys will get from the US government regarding the time the detainees spent in CIA custody in undisclosed locations, known as “black sites,” in the early 2000s. Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Imagesįamilies of 9/11 victims are still looking for answers in court Memorial "Tribute in Light" is seen in Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, New York, USA on Septemon a day before the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
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