Crimes of Terror: The Legal and Political Implications of Federal Terrorism Prosecutions
Wadie E. Said - Oxford University Press, 2015
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| Anteprima |
The
U.S. government's power to categorize individuals as terrorist suspects
and therefore ineligible for certain long-standing constitutional
protections has expanded exponentially since 9/11, all the while
remaining resistant to oversight. Crimes of Terror: The Legal and
Political Implications of Federal Terrorism Prosecutions provides a
comprehensive and uniquely up-to-date dissection of the government's
advantages over suspects in criminal prosecutions of terrorism, which
are driven by a preventive mindset that purports to stop plots before
they can come to fruition. It establishes the background for these
controversial policies and practices and then demonstrates how they have
impeded the normal goals of criminal prosecution, even in light of a
competing military tribunal model. Proceeding in a linear manner from
the investigatory stage of a prosecution on through to sentencing, the
book documents the emergence of a "terrorist exceptionalism" to normal
rules of criminal law and procedure and questions whether the government
has overstated the threat posed by the individuals it charges with
these crimes. Included is a discussion of the large-scale spying and use
of informants rooted in the questionable "radicalization" theory; the
material support statute--the government's chief legal tool in bringing
criminal prosecutions; the new rules regarding generation of evidence
and the broad construction of that evidence as relevant at trial; and a
look at the special sentencing and confinement regimes for those
convicted of terrorist crimes. In this critical examination of terrorism
prosecutions in federal court, Professor Said reveals a phenomenon at
odds with basic constitutional protections for criminal defendants.
