ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

Update: This afternoon, Hamdan was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison, the Associated Press reported. He is eligible for release in six months as he will get credit for time served. At his sentencing hearing, Hamdan said, "It was a sorry or sad thing to see innocent people killed," the New York Times reported. Prosecutors had requested a minimum of 30 years in prison.

Salim Hamdan, who is being held at the military’s detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and served as Osama bin Laden’s driver, was convicted by a military tribunal of providing material support for terrorism and acquitted of conspiracy charges, the New York Times reported. ACSBlog published reports from the trial by observers Sahr MuhammedAlly, Aaron Zissler, and Frank Kendall, who represented the organization Human Rights First.

The Associated Press reported “Hamdan's attorneys said the judge allowed evidence that would not have been admitted by any civilian or military U.S. court, and that interrogations at the center of the government's case were tainted by coercive tactics, including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement.” Hamdan faces life in prison.

Yesterday evening, Military Commission Judge Keith Allred acknowledged that he “may very well have instructed the [military commission jury] members erroneously,” but the prosecution and defense apparently agreed to let the original jury instructions stand, the Times reported.

Shayana Kadidal, the head of the Guantanamo Project at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many of the detainees, recently explained the Attorney General’s new proposal to have Congress intervene in habeas proceedings brought by the detainees to challenge the military commission proceedings. The two part article is available here: part 1, part 2.

In June, ACS released an issue brief by Ahilan Arulanantham, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, on reforming the material support of terrorism laws under which Hamdan was convicted. The Congressional Research Service released an overview of the material support provisions in 2006. In another ACS Issue Brief, Anthony Renzo examined what constitutes the proper role of military tribunals and the history of the writ of habeas corpus.