Padilla Pleads Not Guilty To Terror

Former 'Enemy Combatant' Now In Civilian Custody In Miami

(CBS/AP)  Last week, the high court approved Padilla's transfer to civilian custody in Miami, overruling a lower court that suggested the administration changed tactics and indicted Padilla to avert a Supreme Court ruling on presidential powers during wartime.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and Muslim convert, is charged with conspiring to murder U.S. nationals and providing material support to terrorists as part of a North American cell that provided money, material and fighters for violent Islamic jihad. If convicted, he could face a life sentence.

Prosecutors provided a lengthy list of previous violent charges brought against Padilla, saying he did time for his involvement in a murder when he was 15 and was convicted of crimes including assault, drug possession and weapons violations.

Caruso questioned the strength of the government's case and whether enough evidence exists that Padilla actually sought to take part in armed jihad.

He also said Padilla should not be held for months in solitary confinement after his isolation as a combatant.

"His confinement went far beyond what any American citizen has ever had to endure without charges being filed against them," Caruso said.

The plea marks Padilla's first formal answer to any government charge associated with terrorists. His lawyers fought for three years to gain access to the federal courts.

Padilla, who lived for a time in Broward County in the 1990s, is charged in the Florida case along with four others.

They are Adham Amin Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian who worked as a computer programmer in Broward County; Kifah Wael Jayyousi, Jordanian-born U.S. citizen who worked as a school administrator in Detroit and Washington, D.C.; Mohamed Hesham Youssef, an alleged terror recruit current held in Egypt; and Kassem Daher, a Canadian who is believed to be overseas.