I'm not a legal expert, but something seems weird about the Graner trial. It seems like it was a show trial.
Specifically, his defense lawyer, Guy Womack, seems to be a complete joke.
Why didn't he have a better lawyer ? What was the procedure by which he was chosen ? Did Graner chose that lawyer ?
We get this from Womack today, after closing arguments:
"We came in with a checklist of things we wanted to present to the jury. Once we accomplished that, there was no reason to continue."
Good Grief !
See below for more discussion why this guy seems to be incompetent and why it seems to have been a sham trial.
- Today, on NPR, it was mentioned that a witness that was originally chosen as a defense witness ended up being a witness for the prosecution. That seems to be a weird mistake for a lawyer to make.
- Testimony by Iraq detainees was by video. There was no means to cross examine the detainees. Why did the lawyer allow that ?
- There was a logical inconsitency in the argument for the defense. On one hand, Womack argued that the treatment wasn't
mistreatment. On the other hand, Womack argued that senior officials encouraged the prisoners to be roughly treated and "broken". Those two points are logically inconsistent. If Womack wanted to insist that the treatment was NOT mistreatment, he wouldn't state that Graner was encouraged to "break" the soldiers.
The argument that the treatment was not mistreatment was made when Womack said those ridiculous things such as:
"Cheerleaders all over America form pyramids," he said, "it's not torture"
and,
"You've probably been at a mall or an airport and seen children on tethers. They're not being abused".
Just on those points alone, Womack seems insane.
But then, to argue that Graner was ordered to soften up prisoners, with what Womack argued was "reasonable treatment" seems totally weird.
Anyway, I'm not a lawyer, and I haven't read the transcripts, but on face value, this Womack guy seems to be a joke.
Does anyone here know how these defense lawyers for soldiers are chosen ?
A couple links:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a7bafc14-64fc-11d9-9f8b-00000e2511c8.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Graner#Court-martial