Report: Chief war crimes prosecutor quits
on Oct 5, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Air Force Col. Morris D. Davis, the Pentagon’s sometimes controversial chief prosecutor of war crimes charges, has resigned after a dispute over independence for his office, The Wall Street Journal’s Jess Bravin and Evan Perez reported Friday. The reported departure of the head of the prosecution team could further complicate the resumption of military commission trials — already stalled by disputes over the authority and jurisdiction of those commissions. So far, no trial has gone forward before a military commission.
The Journal article (available in full to subscribers only) says that Col. Davis has been in a dispute with a superior officer since July over how the prosecutions are to proceed. The dispute, it adds, was with Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, identified as legal adviser to the Pentagon officer in charge of convening military commissions to hold war crimes trials.
In an article in The Journal on Sept. 26, Bravin reported that Davis had filed a formal internal complaint alleging that Gen. Hartmann had interfered directly in prosecution of commission cases. It quoted Davis as having said that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 bars outside interference in prosecutions.
 Bravin and Perez reported Friday that, after Col. Davis learned on Thursday that an internal investigation had taken Gen. Hartmann’s side in the dispute, he submitted his resignation. The story quoted him as saying that he had been ordered not to discuss any part of the military commission system with the media.
Col. Davis, who on Sunday will mark the 24th anniversary of his commission as a First Lieutenant, has been the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor for two years, since September 2005, according to his biography on the Pentagon’s website.
 The legal rights of detainees facing war crimes charges before military commissions are now at stake in two cases the Supreme Court is reviewing this Term: Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) and Al Odah v. U.S. (06-1196). While those two cases involve Guantanamo Bay detainees who do not face any criminal charges, but want to challenge their prolonged detention, the forthcoming decision is also expected to have an impact on the rights of those facing prosecution. At the moment, only two prisoners are in that category — Salim Ahmed Hamdan and Omar Ahmed Khadr. The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review recently ruled that military commissions have the authority to reinstate charges against thsoe individuals; the charges were dismissed on technical grounds by two military judges in June. The Pentagon has said that perhaps as many as 80 at Guantanamo Bay may face commission trials — perhaps including 14 so-called “high-value” detainees, some of whom who allegedly had central roles in planning or carrying out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.
