This text was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle on Disaster Reporting.GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A protracted-serving capital protection
This text was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle on Disaster Reporting.
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A protracted-serving capital protection lawyer for one of many 5 males accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults requested the choose on Tuesday to be excused from the case, citing his well being and different points, casting doubt on whether or not the trial can start as scheduled subsequent yr.
Col. W. Shane Cohen, the choose, recessed what was meant to be every week of pretrial hearings to permit the lawyer, James P. Harrington, to place his request to go away the case in writing. The choose additionally invited prosecutors and protection attorneys to weigh in on whether or not the defendant Mr. Harrington represents, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, ought to be tried individually from the opposite 4.
Prosecutors have constantly sought to place all 5 defendants on trial collectively, arguing that a number of trials can be too hectic for the households of the two,976 victims killed within the assaults.
Mr. bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni, is accused of organizing the Hamburg, Germany, cell of the hijackers and appearing as a go-between for the cell and the person accused of being the plot’s mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Mr. Harrington, in his mid-70s, has represented Mr. bin al-Shibh since 2011, and recurrently commuted to the navy jail at Guantánamo Bay from his house and law practice in Buffalo.
He serves within the statutorily required position of “discovered counsel,” a lawyer who focuses on death-penalty protection work. His departure would require the Pentagon to rent a brand new discovered counsel, get her or him safety clearances, organize conferences with Mr. bin al-Shibh and supply time for the brand new lawyer to rise up to hurry on greater than seven years of pretrial proceedings.
Colonel Cohen, an Air Pressure choose, had provisionally set Jan. 11, 2021 for jury choice to start out the anticipated nine-month trial. Mr. Harrington’s departure, the choose mentioned, might delay ongoing pretrial hearings for 3 to 9 months to present a brand new lawyer time “to spin up.” Protection attorneys predicted an extended preparation interval.
A prosecutor, Edward R. Ryan, mentioned his aspect was unaware that Mr. Harrington had well being issues. He mentioned his group was more likely to oppose “a significant change within the case,” particularly 11 months earlier than the scheduled begin of the trial.
In the end, it’s as much as the choose to determine whether or not to launch a protection lawyer from his duties. Colonel Cohen advised Mr. Harrington that he might embody particulars of his well being points in a submitting that solely the choose would learn.
The Marine lawyer in control of the protection groups, Brig. Gen. John G. Baker, has lengthy warned {that a} well being drawback might derail progress. Since 2015 he has repeatedly sought and been denied funding to rent a second discovered counsel for every of the death-penalty protection groups. Mr. Mohammed’s discovered counsel, Gary D. Sowards, is 71, and people representing the opposite three defendants are of their 40s and 50s.
Mr. bin al-Shibh has been essentially the most contentious defendant contained in the courtroom, bitterly complaining to earlier judges that anyone on the jail was consciously searching for to sleep deprive him through noises and vibrations that adopted him across the detention zone. Mr. Harrington at one level sought and bought a courtroom order to stop and desist such actions, in the event that they had been occurring, however mentioned Mr. bin al-Shibh noticed Mr. Harrington as ineffective as a result of his issues continued.
Mr. bin al-Shibh’s group has additionally been suffering from different issues, together with the invention that a linguist assigned to the group by the Pentagon had earlier labored in a C.I.A. black web site.
The choose disclosed the request on Tuesday morning after assembly privately with Mr. bin al-Shibh and Mr. Harrington, after which summoning the opposite protection groups and prosecutors into his chambers. It compelled cancellation of a deliberate week of testimony by a retired F.B.I. agent to assist the choose determine what proof to permit the prosecutors to make use of on the trial.