[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, ARK., OKLA., KAN., ARIZ., USA, US MIL.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 28




OHIO:

Tallmadge man faces death penalty after being convicted of killing 5-year-old 
son, boy's mother



A Tallmadge man is facing execution after a Summit County jury found him guilty 
Friday of killing his 5-year-old son and the boy's mother.

Daniel Tighe, 41, dumped their bodies in a wooded area behind the couple's 
home. He packed 3 stuffed animals in a blanket with the remains of his son 
Peyton, evidence prosecutors used to help convict Tighe.

The jury of 7 women and 5 came back with guilty verdicts for aggravated murder, 
gross abuse of a corpse, domestic violence and tampering with evidence after 
less than a full day of deliberations.

The same jury will decide whether to recommend execution or life in prison for 
Tighe during the mitigation phase of the trial, scheduled to begin March 16.

During that phase of the case, defense attorneys will try and convince the jury 
to spare Tighe's life. Defense attorney Joe Gorman during closing arguments on 
Thursday said Tighe had a rough upbringing.

Gorman said Tighe, an alcoholic, grew up without a mother. Gorman said Tighe's 
father used to make him pick out which chain he would hit him with when Tighe 
was a child.

Tighe and Peyton Ralston's mother, Wendy, had a rocky relationship leading up 
to their disappearance on July 23, 2013.

Wendy Ralston allowed Tighe to live with her after he lost his job and was 
evicted from his home. He failed to find a new job, which strained Wendy 
Ralston's finances, prosecutors said.

Wendy Ralston's mother eventually notified police her daughter was missing 
after she didn't show up for an eviction hearing in Stow Municipal Court. 
Police eventually found their bodies in the woods and that Tighe moved the 
bodies deeper into the woods after a neighbor complained about a strange smell.

Prosecutors showed text messages between the 2 and videos of fights recorded by 
both Tighe and Wendy Ralston during the trial.

Wendy Ralston told Tallmadge police 3 days before she was murdered that she 
feared for her life.

Prosecutors said they believe Tighe strangled Wendy Ralston. The county medical 
examiner was unable to determine a cause of death for either Wendy Ralston or 
her son because their bodies decomposed so much in the summer heat during the 
weeks before police found them.

Forensic examiners did find that Wendy Ralston had a broken neck bone and 
Peyton Ralston had a broken tooth when he was found.

Tighe gave police several different versions of the last time he saw the 2. 
State agents eventually found Tighe's DNA on a roll of tape near one used to 
wrap up Wendy Ralston's body in bedding taken from her bedroom.

Defense attorneys argued that police failed to pursue investigations into at 
least 16 other men Wendy Ralston had contact with in the month leading up to 
her death, including men who paid Wendy Ralston for sex after meeting her 
through sugardaddy.com.

(source: cleveland.com)

***********************

Prosecutor wants death penalty in Ohio pizza slaying



A county prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty for a man suspected of 
killing a pizza delivery driver in the northeast Ohio city of Lorain last 
December.

29-year-old Benjamin Davis of Lorain has been indicted on charges that include 
aggravated murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and tampering with 
evidence. The charges are related to the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Robert 
Caudill.

Lorain police have said Davis called the restaurant where Caudill worked on 
Dec. 1 to have food delivered to a Lorain motel. Lorain is about 30 miles west 
of Cleveland.

Davis was indicted Thursday. Prosecutor Dennis Will told the (Lorain) Morning 
Journal that his office will seek the death penalty for Davis.

Davis' attorney could not be reached.

(source: Associated Press)








ARKANSAS:

As Arkansas Moves To Abolish Death Penalty, Lawmaker Shoots Back With Firing 
Squad Proposal



Just days after an Arkansas Senate committee moved to abandon the death 
penalty, a Republican lawmaker has called for a return of firing squads as an 
execution method.

Acting between the Senate Judiciary Committee's approval of a bill to abolish 
the death penalty and the General Assembly's end-of-February deadline for new 
legislation, Rep. Rebecca Petty (R-Rogers) on Thursday drafted HB 1473, a shell 
bill -- a preliminary piece of legislation to be fleshed out later -- that 
would make firing squads a legal execution protocol in Arkansas.

"We have to hold the people that brutally execute our police and rape and 
murder our women and children accountable," Petty said Friday in an email to 
The Huffington Post. "The people of Arkansas and the legislature overwhelming 
believe this."

Petty continued:

A few judges want to legislate from the bench and are forcing our hands to look 
for alternatives. I personally stand for our children and our police and not 
with these monsters. Additionally, we spend over $67 dollars a day to care for 
these monsters. THAT money is better suited to something like pre-K and to keep 
people out of prison. I care for children and not providing 3 square meals and 
a warm bed for cop killers and child murderers.

Petty's 12-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in 1999 by Karl Roberts, 
the girl's uncle by marriage. After Roberts was convicted in 2000, he waived 
his right to appeal his conviction, but changed his mind just hours before 
execution. He is still on death row.

"I understand where she's coming from," Sen. David Burnett (D-Osceola) told 
HuffPost. "I'm not naive enough to say there aren't evil people in the world 
for whom this would be a just end, but I think Arkansas should do away with 
it."

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved Burnett's bill, SB 298, 
that would remove the death penalty as a sentencing option in capital murder 
cases and cases of treason, making life in prison the harshest penalty 
available to prosecutors. It now moves to the Senate for consideration.

"I believe in Arkansas the system is broken. The only benefit of the death 
penalty is that it's a bargaining tool for prosecuting attorneys," Burnett 
said. "We need to wake up and admit it and do away with it."

Burnett, who counts 10 death penalty cases on his record from his 40 years as a 
prosecuting attorney and a circuit judge, characterized the state's capital 
punishment system as both a "nightmare" and "archaic."

"It's not a deterrent; criminals don't think about it when they're taking 
lives," Burnett added. "It's more retribution than deterrent."

If passed, SB 298 would not affect the sentences of the 31 inmates on Arkansas' 
death row.

The state has not held an execution since 2005 due to legal challenges to the 
lethal injection procedure. Like other states, Arkansas prisons have been 
forced to seek alternative drugs that critics decry as experimental or 
unconstitutional, as the supply of the prior go-to drug dwindles. Petty's bill 
would offer an alternative method of execution.

Burnett said that while support for the abolition of the death penalty has 
grown in recent decades, a majority of Arkansans -- including his fellow 
assemblymen -- still support it.

"I'm not real encouraged by what I'm seeing," Burnett said. "We're next door to 
Texas. I think that's about all I need to say."

(source: Huffington Post)








OKLAHOMA:

District attorney to seek death penalty in Bartlesville double homicide ---- 
Bartlesville man is accused of killing his wife, stepson.



Washington County's district attorney filed a measure Friday seeking the death 
penalty for a 35-year-old Bartlesville man charged with 1st-degree murder in 
the September deaths of his wife and stepson.

District Attorney Kevin Buchanan filed a bill of particulars announcing he will 
seek capital punishment for Steven Lee Adair, who is charged in the Sept. 3 
deaths of Crystal Sue Adair, 41, and Charles Edward Lee, 23.

Adair also is charged with assault with a deadly weapon in an attack on his 
stepdaughter and attempted 1st-degree arson because police discovered that a 
gas stove had been turned on full blast with several burning candles next to it 
in what appeared to be an attempt to blow up the house.

"We are requesting the death penalty in this case," Buchanan said. "This is 
something we have been considering since we got the case."

The death-penalty request is Buchanan's 1st since he became district attorney 
and is the 1st for Washington County in years. Buchanan said be believes the 
last Washington County case in which capital punishment was sought occurred 
around 1990.

Buchanan described the murder of Crystal Adair as "especially heinous, 
atrocious and cruel" as defined by statutes, thereby requiring capital 
punishment. She suffered 41 knife wounds and likely was conscious during each 
one, according to the bill of particulars.

Another factor in the death penalty being sought is the risk to others from the 
gas stove and lighted candles, which could have led to the deaths of law 
enforcement officers if the home had blown up, the document says.

The 3rd condition is a concern that Adair could be a continuing threat to 
commit acts of violence if he were released into society.

Buchanan said the document was filed in advance of Adair's formal arraignment, 
which is set for Wednesday. In January, Special Judge John Gerkin bound Adair 
over for trial on all charges.

(source: Tulsa World)








KANSAS:

King Phillip Amman Reu-El, formerly Phillip Cheatham, pleads no contest to 
capital murder



In an unexpected development, King Phillip Amman Reu-El pleaded no contest 
around 2:30 p.m. Friday to capital murder of 2 women in 2003, and attempted 
1st-degree murder in the severe shooting of a 3rd woman.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor said Friday the time that Amman 
Reu-El, 41, has served in prison since he has been in custody for the slayings 
will apply to the life term in the capital murder conviction.

That means that after he has served 25 years he can apply to the Kansas Parole 
Board to be released from prison, Taylor said. But that doesn't mean he 
automatically will be released after serving 25 years.

Shawnee County District Court Judge Richard Anderson accepted Amman Reu-El's 
pleas and set the case for sentencing at 9 a.m. March 20.

With the plea, the death penalty is removed as a sentence for Amman Reu-El, 
said Taylor and Paul Oller, 1 of 2 capital defense attorneys representing Amman 
Reu-El. A life term in the capital murder conviction would allow the 
possibility of parole after he serves 25 years. Since he was arrested in late 
2003, he has been incarcerated about 11 years.

Oller said prosecutors and defense attorneys recommended that the sentence for 
the 2nd count of attempted murder would run concurrently to the capital murder 
conviction.

Taylor declined to discuss how the plea and plea negotiations had occurred.

"We told the judge at 11:30 (a.m. Friday) that we had come to an agreement," 
Oller said. "It was a very difficult and thought-out decision by Phillip," 
referring to Amman Reu-El, whose name previously was Phillip Delbert Cheatham 
Jr.

Starting Feb. 17, panels of prospective jurors had arrived at the courthouse to 
fill out questionnaires, then field questions from attorneys as a group and 
individually in the jury selection process. Jury selection still was underway 
on Friday when the plea agreement was reached.

Oller said the jury selection process was important to Amman Reu-El and hearing 
the stories of some jurors had a great emotional impact on him. Some 
prospective jurors had lost people to violence, Oller said.

Amman Reu-El indicated he would be able to help people if he had a life 
sentence rather than a death penalty, Oller said. Amman Reu-El can see that in 
the future that either in prison or out of prison, "he could have a purpose," 
Oller said.

Friday "was a tough day for him," Oller said. "He feels still that the justice 
system hasn't treated him very fairly. He doesn't come into this decision 
lightly." Oller referred to Amman Reu-El as a "very intelligent" man, who has a 
tremendous ability to recall information.

Oller has worked on 2 death penalty cases, and John Val Wachtel, Amman Reu-El's 
2nd defense attorney, has represented seven to 9 death penalty defendants.

Amman Reu-El was to be retried in the slayings of Annette Roberson, 38, and 
Gloria A. Jones, 42, in 2003. The retrial was expected to last 6 weeks. If 
convicted of capital murder, Amman Reu-El could have been sentenced to death.

Amman Reu-El was charged with capital murder in the Dec. 13, 2003, shooting 
deaths of Roberson and Jones; 2 alternative counts of premeditated 1st-degree 
murder of Roberson and Jones; attempted 1st-degree murder of Annetta D. Thomas; 
aggravated battery of Thomas; and criminal possession of a firearm.

A retrial was ordered for Amman Reu-El in 2013 after the Kansas Supreme Court 
overturned his capital murder convictions and death penalty for the slayings on 
S.E. Colorado in southeast Topeka.

The convictions were overturned because of ineffective counsel by Amman 
Reu-El's 1st trial lawyer.

(source: Topeka Capital-Journal)








ARIZONA:

Does gender play a role in the courtroom? Arias could become one of few women 
on death row



The jury is on break for the weekend, but Jodi Arias could learn her fate as 
early as Monday.

If they choose death, Arias would become only the 3rd woman in Arizona on death 
row. Currently there are 117 men awaiting their death sentences.

So does gender play a role in the courtroom?

Since 1976, more than 1,400 people have been executed in the United 
States--only 15 were women.

"We don't see women in trial facing death very often," said Beth Karas, a 
former prosecutor in New York City. "Unlike other women who have faced death, 
Jodi Arias doesn't have a child to come into court begging for mercy - don't 
take my mother away."

Even if you take away the courtroom drama, Richard Dieter, the executive 
director of the Death Penalty Information Center says people would still be 
interested in Arias.

"I think people are curious about a woman who commits a violent crime because 
it's out of the ordinary," Dieter said. He says the numbers can back it up.

"The numbers are women are committing about 10 % of the murders but are 2 % of 
death row and are only 1 % of those who are executed."

If Arias gets the death penalty, Dieter believes the case could linger for 15 
years or more because of appeals. He questions if Arizona will still have the 
death penalty at that point since it's already being debated.

(source: ABC news)








USA:

Death row women: The women who are spending their last days on earth on death 
row----Sporting events are regularly postponed due to bad weather but it's not 
often given as a reason for delaying an execution.



Last week, however, US death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner was given an extra 5 
days on Earth following a weather warning of "several inches" of snow which led 
the governor of Georgia to declare a state of emergency and the closure of 
schools and government offices.

It is the latest twist in a saga that has transfixed America.

Even the 46-year-old's last meal request made headlines around the world 
because it weighed in at a gut busting 4,200 calories.

But the main reason Gissendaner's plight has created such a fuss is because if 
her death by injection goes ahead as planned on Monday she will be the 1st 
woman to be executed in Georgia for 70 years.

Indeed she will be 1 of only 14 women to receive the death penalty in the US 
since capital punishment was restored in some states in 1976.

No fewer than 1,388 men have been executed during the same period. What makes 
Gissendaner's case doubly interesting is that, while she was convicted of 
orchestrating the murder of her husband Doug, the lover who actually carried 
out the killing dodged a death sentence by agreeing a plea bargain.

Gissendaner was offered the same deal but on the advice of her lawyer she 
turned it down on the basis that no jury would sentence her to death "because 
she was a woman and because she did not actually kill Doug".

This proved to be a - literally - fatal mistake.

The Gissendaner of today is very different from the woman who was sentenced to 
death in 1998.

Then she was a slim, good-looking brunette but today she looks morbidly obese 
and has the puffy face and pale complexion of the long-term inmate.

The day after tomorrow she will sit down to a final repast.

Then she will be led to the execution chamber, strapped to a gurney and 
administered a lethal injection.

Her death will leave 56 other women awaiting execution in America's prisons, 
including the following:

THE BRITISH INMATE

Linda Carty, 56 Carty, who is British by virtue of her citizenship of St Kitts 
- 1 of the British Virgin Islands - was convicted of the kidnapping and murder 
of neighbour Joana Rodriguez in 2001.

Rodriguez, 25, had recently given birth to a son and the prosecution argued 
that Carty was so desperate for a baby to save her common law marriage that she 
hatched a plot to steal her neighbour's baby and pass him off as her own.

They claimed she hired 3 men to carry out her plan and - while the 4-day-old 
baby survived its ordeal unharmed - Rodriguez was found dead the day after they 
were abducted.

Carty has maintained her innocence from the start of the proceedings with her 
defence claiming that other witnesses were "coached, coerced and otherwise 
threatened" to secure her conviction.

They allege she was framed in revenge for her work as an informant with a drug 
enforcement agency.

Carty was given high-profile support by artist Anthony Gormley in 2009 when he 
erected a cardboard cut-out of her on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square as 
part of an exhibition.

Over the years 3 attempts to obtain an appeal hearing have failed but then on 
Wednesday it emerged that the highest criminal court in Texas had granted Carty 
a rare hearing to review allegations of misconduct involving her case.

THE OLDEST INMATE

Blanche Taylor Moore, 82 Dubbed the Black Widow, Moore specialised in bumping 
off the men in her life by poisoning them with arsenic.



Moore's predilection was only discovered in 1989 when her 2nd husband, pastor 
Dwight Moore, began to feel ill as soon as he got back from their honeymoon.

Arsenic was soon divined to be the cause and, while Dwight survived, his brush 
with death prompted the police to exhume the bodies of some of the other men in 
Moore's life who had met untimely ends.

They duly discovered that Moore appeared to have fatally poisoned a boyfriend 
called Raymond Reid 3 years earlier and her 1st husband 15 years before that.

Meanwhile her father - who died of heart disease in 1966 - was found to have 
abnormal levels of arsenic in his body too.

Moore was sentenced to death by lethal injection as long ago as 1991 for the 
murder of Reid. As a result the authorities are not pursuing her for other 
suspected murders and the attempted murder of Dwight.

Her case continues to be the subject of an appeals process that has now 
stretched to 24 years and the extraordinary story of the murderous grandmother 
has spawned both a book and a made for- TV movie.

THE YOUNGEST INMATE

Emilia Carr, 30 The youngest woman on death row was 8 months pregnant with her 
boyfriend's child when they were both convicted of suffocating his estranged 
wife with a plastic bag after tying her to a chair with duct tape.

Carr claims she left the scene of the crime before the woman was killed but her 
defence case is undermined by a video of her being interviewed by police, which 
was recorded after her boyfriend confessed and implicated her in the crime.

Carr can be heard telling her interrogator that the boyfriend had asked her to 
"try to snap her neck" and then Carr says: "I didn't really try."

Carr gave birth to her child in Marion County Jail and that baby - together 
with her other 3 children - is now in foster care.

She has now been on death row at Florida's Lowell Correctional Institution For 
Women for 4 years but she retains an optimistic outlook.

Carr insists: "We call it 'life row' because we're not dying, we're living."

THE CHEERLEADER KILLER

Tiffany Cole, 33 At school Cole played the flute, joined the Girl Scouts and 
became a cheerleader.

By 25, however, she appears to have transformed into a monster who was 
implicated in the grisly murder of her family's neighbours Reggie and Carol 
Sumner.

So heinous was the crime that the prosecution lawyer said: "There was not any 
case that I prosecuted where the crime was more vile or cruel than the torture 
and murder of the Sumners."

The cause of death was suffocation caused by the presence of dirt in the 
couple's lungs after they were buried alive.

Cole has admitted she helped to dig a grave but said she thought it would be to 
hide the items that she, her boyfriend - someone she had known for just 3 weeks 
- and 2 of his friends had stolen from their victims.

In mitigation a psychiatrist at Cole's trial said she suffered from mental 
problems and had a history of drug and alcohol abuse.

But the jury was shown a damning photo of her celebrating after the crime was 
committed and voted for the death penalty.

(source: The Express)

**********************

U.S. appeals court says Boston bomber trial can stay in city



A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled the trial for the accused Boston Marathon 
bomber can go ahead in the city, over attempts from his attorneys to change the 
venue on the basis an impartial jury could not be seated so close to the site 
of the 2013 attack.

The split 3-judge panel of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals backed 
District Judge George O'Toole, who has 3 times rejected pleas by Dzhokhar 
Tsarnaev's lawyers to move the trial out of Boston, where the bombing killed 3 
people and injured 264.

"We are unable to conclude that it is clear and indisputable that the 
petitioner cannot receive a fair trial by an impartial jury in the Eastern 
Division of Massachusetts," the judges wrote in the 80-page opinion.

Thousands of Boston-area residents were crowded around the race's finish line 
when twin bombs went off on April 15, 2013. 4 days later, hundreds of thousands 
were ordered to remain in their homes while police conducted a massive manhunt 
for Tsarnaev.

That degree of personal connection to the incident will make it very difficult 
to empanel an impartial jury in the city, said attorney Judith Mizner, who is 
representing the 21-year-old Tsarnaev.

The final phase of jury selection is set to take place on Tuesday, when 
prosecutors and defense attorneys will whittle down the field of about 70 
provisionally-qualified jurors to 18 people, including 12 jurors and 6 
alternates.

Tsarnaev, if convicted, could face the death penalty.

In dissent, District Judge Juan Torruella supported the defense's arguments, 
saying that "almost the entire pool of potential jurors has been compromised" 
by the bombing.

"I understand what this trial means for the community: an opportunity for 
closure, a sense of justice," he said. "Rather than convicting Tsarnaev and 
possibly sentencing him to death based on trial-by-media and raw emotion, we 
must put our emotions aside and proceed in a rational manner."

(source: Reuters)








US MILITARY:

Pentagon scraps judges' Guant\anamo move order; 9/11 case unfrozen



In an abrupt retreat Friday, the Pentagon revoked an order to war court judges 
to drop their other military duties and take up residence at this remote base 
until their cases are over.

The 9/11 case judge swiftly responded by lifting a freeze on preparations for 
the terror trial of alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and 4 accused 
accomplices; the judge had imposed the freeze 48 hours earlier with a ruling 
that found the move-in order appeared to be an illegal bid to rush justice.

Defense lawyers in the Sept. 11 and USS Cole death-penalty cases described the 
Jan. 7 relocation order as "unlawful influence," a pressure play designed to 
exile military judges to the remote base in Cuba, cut short pretrial hearings 
and move straight to trial. Commanders meddling in the judicial function is a 
crime in the U.S. military.

The about-face also averted testimony in the USS Cole bombing case by 3 3-star 
officers, the top lawyers of the Navy, Army and Air Force, on how the Pentagon 
order to move the judges took them by surprise - and its impact.

The reversal averted testimony by the Pentagon's top services lawyers: Air 
Force Lt. Gen. Christopher F. Burne, Army Lt. Gen Flora D. Darpino, Navy Vice 
Adm. Nanette M. DeRenzi.

But it did not settle the conflict. Defense lawyers for Saudi Abd al Rahim al 
Nashiri, 50, argued that the way the order was adopted and withdrawn was 
illegal.

They asked the judge, Air Force Col. Vance Spath, to dismiss the death-penalty 
charges against Nashiri, who is accused of orchestrating al-Qaida's Oct. 12, 
2000 suicide bombing off the coast of Yemen. 17 U.S. sailors were killed and 
dozens more wounded in the warship attack.

Alternatively, Nashiri's lawyers asked the judge to exclude from the case the 
architect of the move-in order - retired Marine Maj. Gen. Vaughn A. Ary, as 
well as his legal staff, who oversee the war court in the so-called Office of 
the Convening Authority. The new Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, should 
replace them with officials untainted by the relocation order, said Nashiri's 
civilian lawyer, Rick Kammen.

Ary "can't be trusted" to act impartially, said Kammen, noting Ary's role 
includes funding the defense and choosing the jury pool of U.S. military 
officers - Kammen called it driving "the death train" by handpicking "the 
people that he wants to kill Nashiri."

Prosecutors said, with the move-in order gone, the issue was over. They urged 
Spath to drop it. "We get that there is an appearance issue," said the chief 
war crimes prosecutor, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins. "We all are guardians. The 
independence of the judiciary is at the heart of this."

Spath disagreed. Testimony earlier this week by Ary, the judge said, 
demonstrated there was "some evidence of unlawful influence." Spath never 
dropped his other duties and never moved to this base. But hearing evidence 
this week disclosed a behind-the-scenes plan to remove Spath from the USS Cole 
case rather than relieve him of his other job as chief of the Air Force 
judiciary.

Ary undertook this change "knowing it could remove a sitting trial judge," said 
Spath, adding he would rule Monday morning on the defense motion to dismiss the 
charges.

The move-in order stirred controversy soon after Deputy Secretary of Defense 
Robert Work adopted it Jan. 7.

The Sept. 11 case judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, halted the proceedings this 
week, and said he wouldn't resume them until the Pentagon lifted the move-in 
order. He said it appeared to constitute improper pressure on the judiciary to 
speed justice along.

Friday afternoon, a USS Cole prosecutor, Navy Lt. Paul Morris, announced in 
court that Pohl had lifted his freeze.

Work reversed himself with a single paragraph order Thursday night. He 
instructed the war court overseer to collaborate "as appropriate" with the 
military's top lawyers and the war court judiciary on any proposed war court 
changes.

"Any such regulations must preserve the independence of the military commission 
judiciary in both fact and appearance," Work wrote.

On Friday, his spokeswoman issued a statement defending the reversal as 
"intended to support the Military Commissions in carrying out their mission to 
resolve their cases in a manner consistent with the interests of justice."

Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson said Work "continually reviews" aspects of the war 
court's "policy processes and personnel" to make sure it's "conducted in a fair 
and just manner."

Prosecutors had defended the order Ary designed as part of an effort to improve 
resourcing at the crude compound here called Camp Justice. That order stripped 
military judges hearing Guant???namo cases of their other duties, including 
presiding at U.S. service members' courts martial, without consultation with 
the top lawyers of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

None of the judges obeyed it pending clarifications from their overall 
commanders, called The Judge Advocates General.

No one else on the war court staff was to move down. Just the judges.

Spath ridiculed the idea, asking prosecutor Morris what would happen "when I 
wake up to an empty courtroom and want a hearing."

Morris said the Pentagon would mount a flight to bring him his staff and 
attorneys.

"Why wouldn't I get on the same airplane?" Spath wondered.

The development came as defense lawyers were poised to take sworn testimony 
about the rule from the so-called TJAGs - the military services' 3 top 
uniformed lawyers. They were not consulted on the sudden change to war court 
procedures, and neither was the chief of the Guantanamo judiciary, Pohl.

Spath canceled the testimony over the protests of Nashiri's lawyers. Navy Cmdr 
Brian Mizer, a defense lawyer, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Burne, the 
judge's boss, would have testified that he intended to remove Spath from the 
presiding at the Cole case.

Spath is himself presiding at an airman's double murder case during downtime in 
the on-again, off-again Nashiri pretrial proceedings.

Mizer quoted Burne as telling a defense lawyer in that case, Air Force Lt. Col. 
David Frakt, that he would choose traditional military justice over the war 
court case because he "can't have Colonel Spath sitting at Guantanamo looking 
at iguanas."

No trial dates have been set in either the 9/11 or USS Cole cases.

Preparations have slowed over defense requests related to the captives' 3 and 4 
years in secret CIA detention, where several of the accused were waterboarded, 
at least 1 was subjected to a mock execution and at least 3 were subjected to 
rectal rehydration.

Nashiri was arraigned earlier than the accused Sept. 11 plotters but his case 
has been slowed by an ongoing prosecution appeal of Spath's decision to throw 
out a portion of the case involving al-Qaida's 2002 attack on the oil tanker 
Limburg.

(source: Miami Herald)