All Blog Posts from Courtwatch

Citing anonymous sources, The New York Daily News told us Tuesday morning that federal officials are thinking about bringing to New York for trial alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. The concept is a good one—our federal courts are perfectly capable of prosecuting terror suspects like Mohammed—but the purported choice of venue is weak. The trial of the century for the most important Al Qaeda member ever captured ought to take place in Virginia or Pennsylvania, not New York, for a number of very good reasons.

Bringing Mohammed to trial in New York in a capital case certainly has historical, political and narrative appeal—it would take place just blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood. But locating a death penalty case in downtown Manhattan would immediately give Mohammed's lawyers a trenchant argument to change venue because of the possibility of an unfair trial due to pretrial publicity. If Timothy McVeigh couldn't be assured a fair trial in Oklahoma City before the age of the Internet how in the world could Mohammed be tried fairly today in New York City, which bore the brunt of the 9/11 attacks?

Bringing Mohammed to trial in the Eastern District of Virginia—Alexandria, to be exact—or to the Western District of Pennsylvania—Shanksville, to be exact—would also create live change-of-venue arguments for his lawyers. Northern Virginia was the scene of the crash of Flight 77 into the Pentagon. Somerset County saw the demise of Flight 93. But those arguments wouldn't be nearly as strong as the change-of-venue motion filed in New York. The media in those other places does not remotely saturate the market or drive public conversation the way the media does in Manhattan. So why not start the trial where it is likely to end up? Why not preclude a strong venue challenge?

Read full post…