Posted by Tina
Matthew J. Franck, on his blog Bench Memos, has a powerful point regarding the Salim Hamdan sentencing. The following was taken from his post, Oh For the Good Old Days:
I find the sentence of Salim Hamdan to a mere five and a half years (reduced thanks to time served to a mere one-eleventh of that) appalling. *** In mid-June 1942, eight Germans were covertly landed on American beaches with orders to commit acts of sabotage, and proceeded inland dressed as civilians. Within days they were all captured by the FBI without having harmed a hair on any American’s head. Turned over to the Army, the unlawful enemy combatants were provided with counsel, tried before a military commission, and convicted and sentenced to death for violations of the laws of war. All this occurred before July 1942 was over. President Roosevelt commuted the sentences of two of the prisoners to life in prison; the other six were executed on August 8, 1942. In the meantime the Supreme Court heard and dismissed the motion of the prisoners for leave to file petitions for habeas corpus, holding in Ex parte Quirin that the combined effect of the congressional declaration of war, the articles of war governing lawful combat, and the president’s proclamation that unlawful enemy combatants “were denied access to the courts” was such that the civilian judiciary had no role to play.