José Padilla (alleged terrorist)
Encyclopedia
José Padilla also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir or Muhajir Abdullah, is a United States citizen convicted of aiding terrorists
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

.

Padilla was arrested in Chicago on May 8, 2002 on suspicion of plotting a radiological bomb
Radiological weapon
A radiological weapon or radiological dispersion device is any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation....

 ("dirty bomb") attack. He was detained as a material witness
Material witness
A material witness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain material witnesses dates to the First Judiciary Act of 1789, but the Bail Reform Act of 1984 most recently amended the text of the statute, and it is now codified at...

 until June 9, 2002, when President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 designated him an enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...

 and, arguing that he was thereby not entitled to trial in civilian courts, had him transferred to a military prison. Padilla was held for three and a half years as an "enemy combatant" until, after pressure from civil liberties groups, the charge was dropped and his case was moved to a civilian court.

On January 3, 2006, Padilla was transferred to a Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, jail to face criminal conspiracy charges. On August 16, 2007, a federal jury found him guilty of conspiring to kill people in an overseas jihad and to fund and support overseas terrorism. Government officials had claimed Padilla was suspected of planning to build and explode a "dirty bomb
Dirty bomb
A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....

" in the United States, but he was never charged with this crime, nor convicted on such a charge.

On January 22, 2008, Padilla was sentenced by Judge Marcia G. Cooke
Marcia G. Cooke
Marcia Gail Cooke is an American lawyer and district judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She joined the court in 2004 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.-Early life and education:...

 of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida is the federal United States district court with jurisdiction over the southern part of the state of Florida....

 to 17 years and four months in prison. His mother, Estela Ortega Lebron was relieved but announced that they would appeal the judgment: "You have to understand that the government was asking for 30 years to life sentence in prison. We have a chance to appeal, and in the appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....

 we're gonna do better."

Life before imprisonment

Jose Padilla was born in Brooklyn, New York, but later moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he joined the Latin Kings
Latin Kings
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is said to be the largest and most organized Hispanic street gang in the United States of America, which has its roots dating back to the 1940s in Chicago, Illinois.-History:...

 street gang and was arrested several times. During his gang years, he maintained several aliases
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

, such as José Rivera, José Alicea, José Hernandez, and José Ortiz. He was convicted of aggravated assault and manslaughter as a juvenile when a gang member he kicked in the head died. After serving his last jail
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 sentence, he converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. One of his early religious instructors was an Islamic teacher who professed a nonviolent philosophy, and Padilla appeared at the time to be faithful to his mentor's teachings. Padilla and Adham Amin Hassoun
Adham Hassoun
Adham Amin Hassoun is detained in United States custody and was indicted as a conspirator of José Padilla.Hassoun, who first moved to the United States in the late 1980s, was first detained on immigration charges....

 both attended Masjid Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...

 "for most of the 1990s and were reportedly friends."

U.S. authorities accused Hassoun of consorting with radical Islamic fundamentalists, including Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. Hassoun was arrested in 2002 for overstaying his visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...

 and was charged in 2004 with providing material support to terrorists. By that time Hassoun had already been charged with perjury, a weapons offense, and other offenses.

Padilla married an Egyptian woman named Shamia'a and had two sons who were infants at the time he was arrested in 2002; at his bail hearing his wife and children were believed to be overseas at this time. According to court records in Florida, he was divorced from his wife of five years, Cherie Maria Stultz, in March 2001. The pair married January 2, 1996. She filed for divorce, describing the marriage as "irrevocably broken," and placed an ad in a local business newspaper in January 2001 serving notice she was seeking divorce. Broward County court records also show that on July 1, 1994, Padilla changed his name to one word: "Ibrahim." He was married under that name, and divorce papers identify him as Jose Ibrahim Padilla."

According to press reports in 2002 Padilla had been in the Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

-Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 region in 2001 and early 2002.
Padilla was alleged to have been trained in the construction and employment of radiologic weapons -- "dirty bomb
Dirty bomb
A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....

s" -- at an al Qaeda safehouse in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

, Pakistan. Padilla and United Kingdom resident Binyam Mohammed were alleged to have been recruited to travel to the USA to launch terrorist attacks, at the Lahore safe house.

Arrest

Padilla traveled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. On his return, he was arrested by federal agents at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop...

 on May 8, 2002, and held as a material witness on a warrant issued in the state of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 stemming from the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

.

On June 9, 2002, two days before District Court Judge Michael Mukasey was to issue a ruling on the validity of continuing to hold Padilla under the material witness warrant, President George Bush issued an order to Secretary Rumsfeld to detain Padilla as an "enemy combatant," and Padilla was transferred to a military brig in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 without any notice to his attorney or family. The order "legally justified" the detention using the 2001 AUMF passed in the wake of September 11, 2001 (formally "The Authorization for Use of Military Force Joint Resolution (Public Law 107-40)) and by opining that a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil can be classified an enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...

. (This opinion is based on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Ex parte Quirin
Ex parte Quirin
Ex parte Quirin, , is a Supreme Court of the United States case that upheld the jurisdiction of a United States military tribunal over the trial of several Operation Pastorius German saboteurs in the United States...

, a case involving the detention of a group of German-Americans
Operation Pastorius
Operation Pastorius was a failed plan for sabotage via a series of attacks by Nazi German agents inside the United States. The operation was staged in June 1942 and was to be directed against strategic U.S. economic targets...

 in the United States working for Nazi Germany).

According to the text of the ensuing decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Padilla's detention as an "enemy combatant" (pursuant to the President's order) was based on the following reasons:
  1. Padilla was "closely associated with al Qaeda," a designation for loosely knit insurgent groups sharing common ideals and tactics, "with which the United States is at war
    War
    War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

    ";
  2. He had engaged in "war-like acts, including conduct in preparation for acts of international terrorism";
  3. He had intelligence
    Intelligence
    Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....

     that could assist the United States in warding off future terrorist attacks; and
  4. He was a continuing threat to American security.

2002 memos

Shortly after September 26, 2002, a Gulfstream
Gulfstream Aerospace
Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is a producer of several models of jet aircraft. Gulfstream has been a unit of General Dynamics since 1999.The company has produced more than 1,500 aircraft for corporate, government, private, and military customers around the world...

 jet carrying David Addington
David Addington
David Spears Addington , was legal counsel and chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and is now vice president of domestic and economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation....

, Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...

, John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo was a lawyer at the Central Intelligence Agency for 34 years. He was the acting General Counsel or Deputy Counsel of the CIA for the first nine years of the War on Terror, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site prisons around the globe. "Enhanced interrogation...

, William Haynes II, two Justice Department lawyers, Alice S. Fisher
Alice S. Fisher
Alice S. Fisher was appointed by President George W. Bush in a recess appointment August 31, 2005, as Assistant Attorney General to head the Criminal Division in the United States Department of Justice....

 and Patrick F. Philbin
Patrick F. Philbin
Patrick F. Philbin is an American lawyer and Bush administration appointee.-Academics:Philbin wrote a note in the Harvard Law Review regarding the specialty requirement in the medieval action of covenant.-Career:...

, and the Office of Legal Counsel
Office of Legal Counsel
The Office of Legal Counsel is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General in his function as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies.-History:...

's Jack Goldsmith
Jack Goldsmith
Jack Landman Goldsmith is a Harvard Law School professor who has written a number of texts regarding international law, cyber law, and national security law...

 flew to Camp Delta
Camp Delta
Camp Delta is a permanent detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay that replaced the temporary facilities of Camp X-Ray. Its first facilities were built between February 27 and mid-April 2002 by Navy Seabees, Marine Engineers, and workers from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root...

 to view Mohammed al-Kahtani, then to Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

 to view Padilla, and finally to Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

 to view Yaser Esam Hamdi
Yaser Esam Hamdi
Yaser Esam Hamdi is a now-former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. It is claimed by the U.S. government that he was fighting against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces with the Taliban...

.

In October 2008, 91 pages of memos drafted in 2002 by officers at the Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston
Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston
The Naval Consolidated Brig , is a medium security U.S. military prison. The brig, Building #3107, is located in the south annex of Joint Base Charleston in the city of Hanahan, South Carolina....

 became public. The memos indicate that officers were concerned that the isolation and lack of stimuli were causing fellow prisoner Yasser Hamdi mental anguish at one point. The memos also state that Padilla and a third prisoner, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is a citizen of Qatar who was arrested on charges of being a sleeper al Qaeda agent while studying at Bradley University in the United States. After denying any wrongdoing since his arrest, al-Marri pled guilty in a plea agreement to the federal charges on April 30, 2009...

, were held in similar conditions at the Brig.

Habeas corpus

Because Padilla was being detained without any criminal charges being formally made against him, he, through his lawyer, made a petition for a writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...

to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal district court. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case...

, naming then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

 as the respondent to this petition. The government filed a motion to dismiss the petition on the grounds that:
  1. Padilla's lawyer was not a proper "Next Friend
    Next friend
    In common law, next friend is a phrase used to refer to a person who represents another person who is under disability or otherwise unable to maintain a suit on their own behalf and who does not have a legal guardian....

    " to sign and file the petition on Padilla's behalf;
  2. Commander Marr of the South Carolina brig, and not U.S. Secretary Rumsfeld, should have been named as the respondent to the petition; and
  3. the New York court lacked personal jurisdiction over the named respondent Secretary Rumsfeld who resides in Virginia.


The New York District Court disagreed with the government's arguments and denied its motion. However, the court further declared that President Bush had constitutional and statutory authority to designate and detain American citizens as "enemy combatants" and that Padilla was entitled to challenge his "enemy combatant" designation and detention in the course of his habeas corpus petition, although release was denied. Since the New York District Court had in some way disappointed all sides of this legal battle, both Padilla and the government made an interlocutory appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

On December 18, 2003, the Second Circuit declared that:
  1. Padilla's lawyer is a proper "Next Friend" to sign and file the habeas corpus petition on Padilla's behalf because she, as a member of the bar, had a professional duty to defend her client's interests. Further, she had a significant attorney-client relationship with Padilla and was far from being some zealous "intruder" or "uninvited meddler";
  2. Secretary Rumsfeld can be named as the respondent to Padilla's habeas corpus petition, even though it is South Carolina's Commander Marr who had immediate physical custody of Padilla, because there have been past cases where national-level officials have been named as respondents to such petitions;
  3. the New York District Court had personal jurisdiction over Secretary Rumsfeld even though Rumsfeld resides in Virginia and not New York because New York's "long arm statute
    Long arm jurisdiction
    In United States jurisprudence, long arm jurisdiction is a statutory grant of jurisdiction to local courts over foreign defendants. A state's ability to confer jurisdiction is limited by the Constitution...

    " is applicable to Secretary Rumsfeld, who was responsible for Padilla's physical transfer from New York to South Carolina; and
  4. despite the legal precedent set by Ex parte Quirin
    Ex parte Quirin
    Ex parte Quirin, , is a Supreme Court of the United States case that upheld the jurisdiction of a United States military tribunal over the trial of several Operation Pastorius German saboteurs in the United States...

    , "the President lacked inherent constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief to detain American citizens on American soil outside a zone of combat". The Second Circuit relied on the case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
    Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
    Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, , also commonly referred to as The Steel Seizure Case, was a United States Supreme Court decision that limited the power of the President of the United States to seize private property in the absence of either specifically enumerated authority under Article...

    , 343 U.S. 579 (1952), where the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that President Truman, during the Korean War
    Korean War
    The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

     years, could not use his position and power as Commander-in-Chief, created under Article 2, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, to seize the nation's steel mills on the eve of a nation-wide steelworkers' strike. The extraordinary government power to curb civil rights and liberties during crisis periods, such as times of war, lies with Congress
    United States Congress
    The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

     and not the President. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress, and not the President, the power to suspend the right of habeas corpus during a period of rebellion or invasion.


Declaring that without clear Congressional approval (per ) President Bush cannot detain an American citizen arrested in the United States and away from a zone of combat as an "illegal enemy combatant", the court ordered that Padilla be released from the military brig within 30 days. However, the court had stayed the release order pending the government's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. Supreme Court

On February 20, 2004, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 agreed to hear the government's appeal. The Supreme Court heard the case, Rumsfeld v. Padilla
Rumsfeld v. Padilla
Rumsfeld v. Padilla, , was a United States Supreme Court case, in which José Padilla sought habeas corpus relief against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as a result of his detainment as an "unlawful combatant."...

, in April 2004, but on June 28, 2004, the court dismissed the petition on technical grounds because:
  1. It was improperly filed in federal court in New York instead of South Carolina, where Padilla was actually being detained; and
  2. the Court held that the petition was incorrect in naming the Secretary of Defense as the respondent instead of the Commanding Officer of the naval brig who was Padilla's actual custodian for habeas corpus purposes.

District Court for South Carolina

The case was refiled in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina
United States District Court for the District of South Carolina
The United States District Court for the District of South Carolina is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of South Carolina...

, and on February 28, 2005 the court ordered that the government either charge or release Padilla. On June 13, 2005, the Supreme Court denied the government's petition to have his case heard directly by the court, instead of the appeal being first heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...

 in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

.

On September 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled that President Bush had the authority to detain Padilla without charges. In an opinion written by judge J. Michael Luttig
J. Michael Luttig
J. Michael Luttig is an American lawyer and a former federal appellate court judge.-Education and early work:Born in Tyler, Texas, Luttig graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1976. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in...

, Luttig cited the joint resolution by Congress authorizing military action following the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

, as well as the June 2004 ruling concerning Yaser Hamdi.

Attorneys for Padilla and civil liberties organizations, filing friend of the court briefs, argued that the detention was illegal. They said it could lead to the military holding anyone, from protesters to people who check out what the government considers the wrong books from the library. The Bush Administration denied the allegations. Their argument noted that the Congressional military authorization (the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists , one of two resolutions commonly known as "AUMF" , was a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress on September 14, 2001, authorizing the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the attacks on...

) pertained only to nations, organizations or persons whom the President "determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

, or harbored such organizations or persons." They advanced a reading of this language would suggest a Congressional limitation to the military power would assure an appropriately narrow range of detainees and that the power to detain would last only so long as the Congressional authorization was not revoked or remained in effect by its terms. Similarly, they noted that the Yaser Hamdi Supreme Court case (Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 was a U.S. Supreme Court decision reversing the dismissal of a habeas corpus petition brought on behalf of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen being detained indefinitely as an "illegal enemy combatant." The Court recognized the power of the government to detain enemy...

) upon which the court relied, required a habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...

 hearing for any alleged enemy combatant who demands one, claiming not to be such a combatant, which would require additional judicial or military tribunal oversight over each such detention.

The argument in the general public concerning the legality of Padilla's detention also examined one of the provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...

 enacted on October 17, 2006, which states:

The Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...

 does not apply by its terms to José Padilla, since he is a U.S. citizen, although other provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...

 may provide civil and criminal amnesty to those involved in his case, who might otherwise face civil rights lawsuits or criminal liability for unlawfully detaining someone. The immunity provisions may be tested in a civil suit brought by Padilla against John Yoo discussed below.

Indictment

On November 22, 2005, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

's front page broke the news that Padilla had been indicted on charges he "conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas." Padilla's lawyer correlated the indictment's timing as avoidance of an impending Supreme Court hearing on the Padilla case: "the administration is seeking to avoid a Supreme Court showdown over the issue". None of the original allegations put forward by the U.S. government three years prior, the claims that held Padilla in the majority in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

 throughout that period, were part of the indictment: "Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...

 Alberto Gonzales announced Padilla is being removed from military custody and charged with a series of crimes" and "There is no mention in the indictment of Padilla's alleged plot to use a dirty bomb
Dirty bomb
A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....

 in the United States. There is also no mention that Padilla ever planned to stage any attacks inside the country. And there is no direct mention of Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. Instead the indictment lays out a case involving five men who helped raise money and recruit volunteers in the 1990s to go overseas to countries including Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

, Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

, Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

 and Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

. Padilla, in fact, appears to play a minor role in the conspiracy. He is accused of going to a jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

 training camp in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 but his lawyers said the indictment offers no evidence he ever engaged in terrorist activity." Considering Padilla was held for years in military custody with no formal charges brought, many were shocked by this move by the George W. Bush presidential administration, and some reasoned that a repeat of such a process would allow the U.S. government to detain citizens indefinitely without presenting the cause that would eventually be tried.

On December 21, 2005 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...

 refused to authorize a transfer from the Navy brig. The court suggested that the administration was now manipulating the federal court system with "intentional mooting" in order to avoid Supreme Court review, and recognized "shifting tactics in the case threatens [the government's] credibility with the courts". This was countered by Solicitor General Paul Clement
Paul Clement
Paul Drew Clement is a former United States Solicitor General and current Georgetown University legal professor. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law. He was nominated by President George W...

: the federal appeals court decision "defies both law and logic," he stated in a request to the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 for immediate transfer on December 30, 2005, one day after Padilla's lawyers filed a petition of their own charging the U.S. President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 of overstepping his authority.

On January 3, 2006, the United States Supreme Court granted a Bush administration request to transfer Padilla from military to civilian custody. Padilla was transferred to a federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...

 in Miami from the Navy brig in Charleston while the Supreme Court decided whether to accept his appeal of the government's authority to keep citizens it designates "enemy combatants" in open-ended military confinement without benefit of trial.

On April 3, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, with three justices dissenting from denial of certiorari
Certiorari
Certiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...

, to hear Padilla's appeal from the 4th Circuit Court's decision that the President had the power to designate him and detain him as an "enemy combatant" without charges and with disregard to habeas corpus.

Criminal proceedings

Padilla was indicted on three criminal counts in the Miami, Florida criminal proceeding to which he was transferred from military custody. He pled not guilty to all charges. The trial commenced on May 15, 2007, and lasted for 3 months.

Partial dismissal of counts against Padilla

Two weeks after the presiding judge claimed prosecutors were "light on facts" in its conspiracy allegations, one of the three charges against Padilla was dismissed and another was dismissed in part.

The first of the three counts Padilla was charged with, conspiracy to murder (punishable by life imprisonment), was dismissed on August 16, 2006, on the grounds that it was duplicative of the other two counts pending against him. The second count was conspiracy to materially aid terrorists under (punishable by five years in prison) and the third was (punishable by 15 years in prison). The trial court ordered that the government elect only a single criminal statute in its second count of the indictment.

However, on January 30, 2007, the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Middle District of Alabama...

 reversed the ruling and reinstated a charge of conspiracy to "murder, kidnap, and maim."

Allegations of torture during imprisonment

Padilla's legal team filed a motion to dismiss the case, alleging that during his imprisonment he has been subjected to torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

, including sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...

, sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...

, enforced stress positions
Stress positions
A stress position, also known as a submission position, places the human body in such a way that a great amount of weight is placed on just one or two muscles. For example, a subject may be forced to stand on the balls of his feet, then squat so that his thighs are parallel to the ground...

 and administered various drugs including possibly LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

 and PCP
Phencyclidine
Phencyclidine , commonly initialized as PCP and known colloquially as angel dust, is a recreational dissociative drug...

.

Delays in prosecution

Two additional motions also filed in October 2006, argued that the case should be dismissed because the government took too much time between arresting Padilla and charging him. In essence, the argument was that for constitutional speedy trial
Speedy trial
Speedy trial refers to one of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution to defendants in criminal proceedings. The right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, is intended to ensure that defendants are not subjected to unreasonably lengthy incarceration prior to a fair...

 purposes, the arrest took place prior to his detention as an enemy combatant, and not simply when he was transferred to civilian custody.

Mental competency hearing

In January 2007 a mental competency hearing
Competence (law)
In American law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings. Defendants that do not possess sufficient "competence" are usually excluded from criminal prosecution, while witnesses found not to possess requisite competence cannot testify...

 was scheduled for February 22, 2007 over allegations of torture by the military, after two mental health experts hired by the defense to conduct a competency evaluation
Competency evaluation (law)
In the United States criminal justice system, a competency evaluation is an assessment of the ability of a defendant to understand and rationally participate in a court process....

 concluded Padilla is not mentally fit for trial and a third evaluation submitted by the Bureau of Prisons found him mentally competent. The judge also ordered that Sandy Seymour, technical director of the Charleston brig, Craig Noble, brig psychologist, Andrew Cruz, brig social worker, four employees of the Miami federal detention center, and a Defense Department lawyer appear at the hearing.

On February 22, 2007, at the competency hearing, Angela Hegarty, a psychiatrist hired by Padilla's defense, said that after 22 hours of examining Padilla it was her opinion that he was mentally unfit to stand trial. She said that he exhibited “a facial tic, problems with social contact, lack of concentration and a form of Stockholm syndrome
Stockholm syndrome
In psychology, Stockholm Syndrome is an apparently paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them...

." She diagnosed his condition as post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...

. She told the court "It's my opinion that he lacks the capacity to assist counsel. He has a great deal of difficulty talking about the current case before him." In cross examination Federal prosecutor John Shipley pointed out that Padilla had a score of zero on Hegarty's post-traumatic stress disorder test and pointed out that this information was omitted in her final report. Hegarty responded that this omission was an error on her part. Another psychiatrist hired by the defense testified along the same lines. The Miami Herald reported that a "U.S. Bureau of Prisons psychiatrist who believes Padilla is fit to face trial and Defense Department officials -- are expected to testify at the ongoing hearing before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke."

Conviction and sentencing

On August 16, 2007, after a day and a half of deliberations, the jury found Padilla guilty on all counts. He was scheduled to be sentenced on December 5, 2007, but his sentencing was postponed to January due to the death of a family member of the judge scheduled to sentence him. He was sentenced on January 22, 2008 to 17 years and 4 months in federal prison. His co-defendants received 15-year, eight-month and 12-year, eight-month sentences respectively.

Before receiving his permanent prison assignment, Padilla was placed in the Federal Detention Center, Miami facility. Padilla's sentence is currently being served at ADX Florence
ADX Florence
The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility is a supermax prison for men that is located in unincorporated Fremont County, Colorado, United States, south of Florence. It is unofficially known as ADX Florence, Florence ADMAX, Supermax, or The Alcatraz of the Rockies...

 "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado. Padilla, prisoner number 20796-424, has a projected release date of 03-28-2021.

Direct appeal of criminal conviction

As of February 28, 2008, Padilla had appealed his conviction and sentence, and the government had cross-appealed.

Sentence ruled too lenient

On September 19, 2011, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out the 17-year prison sentence imposed on Jose Padilla, ruled that the sentence imposed by a Miami federal judge was too lenient, and sent the case back for a new sentencing hearing. The Court said, "Padilla's sentence of 12 years below the low end of the (sentencing) guidelines range reflects a clear error of judgment about the sentencing of this career offender."

Criticism of his conviction

Andrew Patel, Padilla’s lawyer, said after the guilty verdict, “What happened in this trial, I think you have to put it in the context of federal conspiracy law, where the government doesn’t have to prove that something happened, but just that people agree that something should happen in the future. In this case, it was even more strained. The crime charged in this case was actually an agreement to agree to do something in the future. So when you’re dealing with a charge like that, you’re not going to have—or the government’s not going to be required to produce the kind of evidence that you would expect in a normal criminal case.”

Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts is an American economist and a columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and...

 criticized the jury's verdict in the Padilla case as having "overthrown" the Constitution and doing far more damage to US liberty than any terrorist could.

Andy Worthington
Andy Worthington
Andy Worthington is a British historian, journalist, and film director.He has published three books, and been published in numerous publications.In 2009 Worthington was the co-director of a documentary about the Guantanamo detainees....

 wrote "[Seventeen] years and four months seems to me to be an extraordinarily long sentence for little more than a thought crime, but when the issue of Padilla's three and half years of suppressed torture is raised, it's difficult not to conclude that justice has just been horribly twisted, that the President and his advisors have just got away with torturing an American citizen with impunity, and that no American citizen can be sure that what happened to Padilla will not happen to him or her. Today, it was a Muslim; tomorrow, unless the government's powers are taken away from them, it could be any number of categories of 'enemy combatants' who have not yet been identified."

Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute raised several issues with the Padilla seizure in an amicus brief he filed to the Supreme Court. In it, he asks questions such as whether the president can lock up any person in the world and then deny that person access to family, defense counsel, and civilian court review; and the use of "harsh conditions" and "environmental stresses." He questioned whether such techniques be employed against anyone once the president gives an order. Those legal questions remain unsettled even today. By abruptly moving Padilla from the military brig and into the ordinary criminal justice system, Lynch argued that the Bush administration was able to forestall Supreme Court review of the president’s military powers.

Glenn Greenwald journalist and former constitutional law and civil rights litigator writes a highly critical piece in online magazine Salon.com 21 September 2011

Civil proceedings

On January 4, 2008, Padilla and his mother filed suit against John Yoo
John Yoo
John Choon Yoo is an American attorney, law professor, and author. As a former official in the United States Department of Justice during the George W...

 in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Case Number CV08 0035). The complaint seeks damages based on the alleged torture of Padilla attributed by the complaint to Yoo's torture memoranda. The claim is that Yoo caused Padilla's damages by authorizing his alleged torture through his memoranda.

On June 12, 2009, the trial court held that the complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim, because if everything stated in the complaint was taken as true, it stated grounds for Yoo to be liable to Padilla for civil damages.

Names

According to his attorney and others, Padilla has changed the pronunciation of his family name from the typical pəˈdiːjə to pəˈdɪlə . (See also Ll
Ll
Ll/ll is a digraph which occurs in several natural languages.-In English:In English, ll represents the same sound as single l:...

.) Padilla's Muslim name
Arabic name
Long ago, Arabic names were based on a long naming system; most Arabs did not simply have given/middle/family names, but a full chain of names. This system was in use throughout the Arab world. Today however, Arabic names are similar in structure to those of Modern and Western names...

 Abdullah
Abdullah
-Places:*Abdullah Gan, mountainous region of Afghanistan*Abdullah Hukum LRT station, elevated rapid transit station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia*Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum, was an urban village located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...

 al-Muhajir
Muhajir
Muhajir or Mohajir is an Arabic word meaning immigrant. The Islamic calendar Hejira starts when Muhammad and his companions left Mecca for Medina in what is known as Hijra. They were called Muhajirun...

, which he began using during his jail sentence, literally means "Abdullah the migrant". "al-Muhajir" is a laqab (epithet
Epithet
An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...

) rather than an adopted family name. Padilla is not related or known to be connected in any way to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

Timeline

  • March 2002: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, purported mastermind of the September 11 attacks and Al-Qaida's operational planner and organizer, allegedly suggests José Padilla target up to three high-rise buildings that use natural gas with a radiological "dirty bomb."
  • May 8, 2002: Padilla arrives at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after an overseas trip, carrying $10,526, a cell phone and e-mail addresses for al-Qaeda operatives. He is arrested on a material witness warrant.
  • June 9, 2002: Padilla is listed as an "enemy combatant" and transferred to the Defense Department.
  • Shortly after September 26, 2002, a Gulfstream
    Gulfstream Aerospace
    Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is a producer of several models of jet aircraft. Gulfstream has been a unit of General Dynamics since 1999.The company has produced more than 1,500 aircraft for corporate, government, private, and military customers around the world...

     jet carrying David Addington
    David Addington
    David Spears Addington , was legal counsel and chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and is now vice president of domestic and economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation....

    , Alberto Gonzales
    Alberto Gonzales
    Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...

    , John A. Rizzo
    John A. Rizzo
    John A. Rizzo was a lawyer at the Central Intelligence Agency for 34 years. He was the acting General Counsel or Deputy Counsel of the CIA for the first nine years of the War on Terror, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site prisons around the globe. "Enhanced interrogation...

    , William J. Haynes, II
    William J. Haynes, II
    William James "Jim" Haynes II is an American lawyer and former General Counsel of the Department of Defense during President George W. Bush's administration. Haynes resigned as General Counsel effective March 2008...

    , two Justice Department lawyers, Alice S. Fisher
    Alice S. Fisher
    Alice S. Fisher was appointed by President George W. Bush in a recess appointment August 31, 2005, as Assistant Attorney General to head the Criminal Division in the United States Department of Justice....

     and Patrick F. Philbin
    Patrick F. Philbin
    Patrick F. Philbin is an American lawyer and Bush administration appointee.-Academics:Philbin wrote a note in the Harvard Law Review regarding the specialty requirement in the medieval action of covenant.-Career:...

    , and the Office of Legal Counsel
    Office of Legal Counsel
    The Office of Legal Counsel is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General in his function as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies.-History:...

    's Jack Goldsmith
    Jack Goldsmith
    Jack Landman Goldsmith is a Harvard Law School professor who has written a number of texts regarding international law, cyber law, and national security law...

     flew to Camp Delta
    Camp Delta
    Camp Delta is a permanent detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay that replaced the temporary facilities of Camp X-Ray. Its first facilities were built between February 27 and mid-April 2002 by Navy Seabees, Marine Engineers, and workers from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root...

     to view Mohammed al-Kahtani, then to Charleston, South Carolina
    Charleston, South Carolina
    Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

     to view Jose Padilla
    José Padilla
    José Padilla is the name of:* José Gualberto Padilla , Puerto Rican poet, politician and advocate of Puerto Rican indepedence.* José Prudencio Padilla , Colombian military leader...

    , and finally to Norfolk, Virginia
    Norfolk, Virginia
    Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

     to view Yaser Esam Hamdi
    Yaser Esam Hamdi
    Yaser Esam Hamdi is a now-former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. It is claimed by the U.S. government that he was fighting against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces with the Taliban...

    .
  • December 18, 2003: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit orders Padilla to be released from military custody within 30 days and if the government chooses, tried in civilian courts.
  • January 22, 2004: The Second Circuit suspends its ruling after the Bush administration appeals the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • March 3, 2004: Lawyers for Padilla meet with him for the first time since his incarceration at a naval brig in June 2002.
  • June 28, 2004: In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court rules that Padilla should have filed his appeal in federal court in Charleston, S.C., because he is being held at a Navy brig there, rather than in New York.
  • September 9, 2005: A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rules that the government can continue to hold Padilla indefinitely.
  • October 25, 2005: Padilla appeals the appeals court decision to the Supreme Court. The Bush administration's deadline for filing arguments is November 28.
  • November 22, 2005: Padilla is indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on charges that he conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas. The charges do not include any allegations of a "dirty bomb" plot or other plans for U.S. attacks.
  • December 21, 2005: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in an opinion authored by Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig, chastises the administration for using one set of facts to justify holding Padilla without charges and another set to persuade a grand jury in Florida to indict him. Luttig said the administration has risked its "credibility before the courts."
  • January 4, 2006: Supreme Court agrees to let the military transfer Padilla to Miami to face criminal charges, overruling the Fourth Circuit.
  • January 12, 2006: Padilla pleads not guilty to charges alleging he was part of a secret network that supported Muslim terrorists. The charges could bring a life in prison sentence.
  • April 3, 2006: Supreme Court rejects Padilla's appeal, although Chief Justice John Roberts and other key justices said that they would be watching to ensure Padilla receives the protections "guaranteed to all federal criminal defendants."
  • August 16, 2006: Federal trial court in Miami, Florida dismisses conspiracy to murder charges against Padilla, leaving the most serious charge still pending a charge that could bring a 15-year prison sentence.
  • October, 2006: Padilla moves to dismiss the federal criminal case against him alleging that he had been tortured and that proceedings had been delayed too long from his arrest in May 2002.
  • January 30, 2007: The United States Court of Appeals reverses the August 2006 decision and reinstates the conspiracy to murder charge with a potential life sentence.
  • May 15, 2007: Trial commences in federal trial court.
  • July 13, 2007: Prosecution rests case in federal criminal trial.
  • August 16, 2007: Jury reaches verdict in federal criminal trial. Padilla is found guilty on all charges relating to conspiracy.
  • January 4, 2008: Padilla commences civil suit in California against John Yoo.
  • January 22, 2008: Padilla is sentenced to 17 years, 4 months in prison on the criminal charges of conviction by the U.S. District Court.
  • June 12, 2009: Padilla's civil suit against John Yoo sustained by U.S. District judge in California.
  • September 19, 2011: 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the sentence imposed by a Miami federal judge was too lenient and sent the case back for a new sentencing hearing

See also

  • Military Commissions Act of 2006
    Military Commissions Act of 2006
    The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...

  • List of Puerto Ricans
  • List of Guantánamo Bay detainees
  • List of notable converts to Islam
  • Islamist terrorism
  • Carlos "Omar" Almonte, Muslim Hispanic convert from New Jersey, arrested in Operation Arabian Knight on terrorism charges


External links


Further reading

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