Posted on 07/15/2002 8:22:20 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
John Walker Lindh, the American captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban, agreed Monday to plead guilty to two charges in a surprise deal with prosecutors that spared him from life in prison.
The deal, which caught even the trial judge off guard, was announced on the first day of what was supposed to be a weeklong series of hearings at which defense lawyers hoped to get statements Lindh made to investigators thrown out of his trial.
''There is a change in plea,'' defense attorney James Brosnahan told U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III at the outset of Monday's proceeding in federal court here.
Lindh's lawyer said his client would plead guilty to one charge of supplying services to the Taliban and another charge, not originally in the indictment, alleging he carried explosives in the commission of a felony.
Under terms of his deal with prosecutors, Lindh, 21, would serve two 10-year prison sentences and would cooperate fully with U.S. authorities in the investigation of the al-Qaida and terrorism.
Lindh was slated to begin trial on in late August on 10 charges that he conspired to murder U.S. citizens, contributed services to al-Qaida and the Taliban and used firearms during crimes of violence.
Three of counts carried the maximum of life imprisonment for Lindh, who was captured in early December and transferred to civilian custody in late January.
Brosnahan told the court a deal was completed late Sunday night, on the eve of a hearing that was to determine whether statements Lindh made to interrogators after his capture would be admissible in court.
The judge had opened the hearing by discussing procedures for protecting the identity of confidential witnesses in the proceedings planned for this week.
Ellis stopped when the defense attorney announced the plea change.
With his parents and younger sister seated behind him, Lindh rose in his green prison jumpsuit to face the judge, who asked him whether he wished to waive his right to trial.
''Yes, sir,'' Lindh responded.
Ellis then declared, ''the court finds John Lindh fully capable and competent.''
The judge asked Lindh a series of standard questions about his background.
''I attended some college in California as well as Yemen,'' Lindh explained in a soft voice.
The judge asked him to speaker louder. ''Do you feel as though you can make a decision about your future today?'' Ellis asked.
''Yes,'' responded Lindh, who would be 41 when freed from prison under terms of the plea deal, if the judge accepts it.
Lindh, a young man from a middle-class family in Marim County, California, broke onto the American scene in December when he was discovered among Taliban prisoners captured in Afghanistan.
With long hair and a beard, he gave a hospital bed interview to a freelance reporter for CNN explaining describing his allegiance to the Taliban.
In military interrogations, he also claimed to have met Osama bin Laden once, government lawyers claim.
It was those statements that his lawyers were seeking this week to keep out of the trial before the deal was reached.
While Lindh's team had disputed government accounts of his statements, prosecutors contended that he described enlisting in the Taliban; training at a camp the government says was run by al-Qaida; meeting with bin Laden in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001; and learning from others at the camp that the al-Qaida leader had sent operatives to carry out suicide missions against the United States and Israel.
In advance of Monday's announcement, Lindh's lawyers had been plotting a strategy aimed at challenging the use in court of statements he made while still in Afghanistan. They had contended that the failure to tell him of his right to remain silent and have an attorney present violated his rights. They also had said that Lindh was malnourished, deprived of sleep, bound and blindfolded, conditions that should invalidate anything he said.
Prosecutors responded that the Miranda rule spelling out a defendant's rights has no place on the battlefield. They argued Lindh was treated as well as U.S. soldiers in the field.
It's possible, but I won't hold my breathe.
Read again. Only 20 years. That sucks worse.
Yeah...keep him with the child molestors...he will in all likelihood be about as popular.
Only 20 years... that sucks...squared.
I hate to say this, but this lays at the doorstep of Bush, because I think he's the one that gave final okay to try him as a civilian (I think).
But the good news is that reporter didn't have to testify. I think he may have been a gov't agent and that's why we gave Johnny Boy an easy plea bargain.
It might be time for the al Qaeda thugs, al Fuqra thugs and the Black Muslim thugs in America to go to Mexico, Canada or some other place.
Only 20 years...
20 years of hard labor might be a start...no music, no women, nothing but bread and water to eat and drink...wait!...nah...sounds too much like life under the Taliban.
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