John T. Floyd Law Firm
Houston Criminal Lawyer
"Serious Criminal Defense Throughout Texas"
Experienced Criminal Defense Lawyer
Trials, Sentencings and Appeals
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Top Lawyers: Criminal Defense - 2008, 2009 HTexas
“WAR ON TERROR” ISSUES
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February 18, 2010
AN ELECTION TORPEDOES THE CONSTITUTION
Politics of Terror Threaten Constitution
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The recent election of Republican Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts has effectively torpedoed the constitutional right to silence by any “terror suspect” arrested on American soil. Elected to replace the legendary liberal Senator Ted Kennedy, who died of brain cancer last August, Brown used the “politics of terror” to seal his stunning upset victory over Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Brown accused the Obama administration of being “soft on terror” with its decisions to close Guantanamo Bay and to prosecute “9/11 mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and co-conspirators in a New York federal civilian court rather than before a military tribunal. more...
February 5, 2010
WHO IS AAFIA SIDDIQUI: TERRORIST OR GOVERNMENT PAWN?
The Tragic Case of the “The Gray Lady of Bagram”
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The U.S. Government contends Aafia Siddiqui’s alleged links to terrorism began in June 2001—some three months before the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City’s Twin Towers. According to government sources, Siddiqui made a trip from Quetta, Pakistan to Monrovia, Liberia, where she was met by a car and driven to the Hotel Boulevard, a known al Qaeda safe house. A week later Siddiqui allegedly left Monrovia in the same inauspicious manner in which she arrived—the only difference being is that she carried with her a large parcel of Africa’s illegal diamonds, a hard-to-trace but key funding source for al Qaeda’s terror operations. more...
January 9, 2010
MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2009
Fear Mongers Continue Calls for Military Tribunals to Avoid Burdens of Complying with Constitution and Rule of Law
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The day after we posted our blog “Argument Against Gitmo Closure Defeated By Act of Terrorism” (Dec. 28, 2009), in which we pointed out that Republican opponents of the Obama administration’s decision to close Guantanamo Bay, had not suggested that Christmas Day attempted airline bomber Umar Farouck Abdulmutallab be tried before a military tribunal rather than in a civilian court, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) led an awakened chorus of Republican voices saying Abdulmutallab should not be tried as a “criminal defendant” in a federal civilian court but rather as a “terrorist” before a military tribunal. more...
December 28, 2009
ARGUMENT AGAINST GITMO CLOSURE DEFEATED BY ACT OF TERRORISM
Recent Arrest, Detention and Charging of Attempted Airplane Bomber Illustrate Fed’s Ability to Handle Terror Suspects in Civilian Courts
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Two recent decisions by President Obama’s administration has drawn intense criticism designed to manipulate the natural fear Americans have of terrorism since 9/11: the decision to try the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), and his co-conspirators, in a New York federal civilian court and the decision to transfer “terror suspects” currently housed at the U.S. detention facility (“Gitmo”) in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois. more...
December 3, 2009
TRYING KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMAD IN FEDERAL COURT IS NOT END OF WORLD
Federal Trials Open to the Public, for Terrorism Cases Support American Constitutional Concepts of Fair Trials, Justice
By Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
While there are many security and legal problems associated with major terrorism trials conducted in federal courts in the United States, Republican critics of the Obama administration’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (“KSM”) in a New York federal court have methodically spread unnecessary fear in order to politicize that decision. What may be good for the country, much less our legal system, does not factor into their conservative political agenda to undermine the Obama presidency at every turn. It’s tantamount to an irresponsible lunatic standing up in a crowded theater and hollering “fire” just to see how much panic and chaos he can cause. more...
November 21, 2009
IS OSAMA BIN LADEN A TERRORIST OR AN “UNPRIVILEGED BELLIGERENT”?
Politics as Usual: Republicans Desperately Seek Outrage to be Relevant
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently appeared before a U.S. Senate committee hearing to explain his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his four co-conspirators, in federal civilian court rather than let them be tried before a military commission under the 2009 Military Commissions Act. There were a number of sharp, biting exchanges between Holder and Republican senators, all of whom have joined ranks in a calculated political agenda to oppose the Obama administration not only on this decision but any decision it makes on any front. more...
November 18, 2009
THE AGONIZING GITMO DILEMMA
Enemy Combatant Cases in Federal Courts Chart Uncertain Path
By Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
On January 22, 2009, just days after assuming the presidency, Barak Obama announced that he would close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility where hundreds “suspected terrorists” have been held for years without trial under an official Bush-administration created designation “enemy combatant.” Civil libertarians and prominent constitutional scholars have long advocated the closure of the facility while political conservatives have fought hard in the trenches to keep the internationally-criticized torture facility open. more...
October 14, 2009
WHO ARE THE REAL HOME GROWN TERRORISTS?
Right-Wing Patriot Groups, White Supremest, Neo-Nazis Pose Growing Threat
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The mainstream media over the past two weeks has been saturated with an endless stream of stories about Najibullah Zazi, a suspected Afganhani terrorist reportedly involved in a plot of bomb New York City’s mass transit system; Michael Fenton, an American converted to Islam who allegedly planted and attempted to trigger a fake vehicle bomb in front of a Springfield, Illinois federal court building with the help of undercover FBI operatives; and Hosam Maher Smadi, a Jordanian who also allegedly planted and attempted to trigger a fake vehicle bomb at a Dallas skyscraper with the help of undercover FBI operatives. All three allegedly terrorist plots were exposed by the FBI this past September following the arrests of these individuals. more...
September 26, 2009
NEVER, EVER TALK TO POLICE WITHOUT A LAWYER
Recent Terrorism Related Arrests Illustrate Need to Consult Lawyer Before Interviewing with Law Enforcement
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
This legal maxim is rooted in the very soul of every criminal defense attorney. Even if an individual is innocent, no one should ever talk to the police once the police make it clear they are investigating a crime, or a potential crime, and they feel the individual has either some involvement or knowledge about the crime. This advice is especially true when it comes to the FBI whose agents are skilled in the art of interrogation and proficient at tricking a person into making a false statement. more...
September 7, 2009
RACE AND RELIGION: THE STARTING POINT OF TERRORISM INVESTIGATIONS
Religious and Racial Profiling Justified in McCarthy Era Inspired Investigations and Tactics
By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City, and the reaction to those terrorist attacks by President George Bush’s administration, left this nation with a tragic and despicable legacy that has tarnished our great Country’s reputation and image worldwide. One part of this legacy was the government’s voluntary interview program that used race and religion as the primary factors for initiating contact with individuals which continues to be fueled by the faulty premise that these two factors create “suspect communities” from which real and suspected “terrorists” could be found. more...
September 1, 2009
CIA PROBE NECESSARY TO PROTECT RULE OF LAW
Investigating Crimes of Torture: Expecting and Demanding Accountability
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and paralegal Billy Sinclair
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently selected a Connecticut federal prosecutor named John H. Durham to investigate whether the CIA’s destruction of the videotapes of harsh interrogation techniques inflicted upon terror suspects between 2002 and 2003 merit a full blown investigation of the agency employees (or independent contractors hired by the agency) who conducted those interrogations and those government officials who approved them. more...
August 23, 2009
2009 CAIR AWARD: ASSISTING THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
Pro Bono Legal Representation in Voluntary Interviews, Profiling by FBI
By: John Floyd, Houston Criminal Defense Attorney
On August 15th, 2009, I received an award in recognition of my pro bono work for the Muslim community in Houston. CAIR-TX, Houston Chapter, presented the award upon which was inscribed: “In Recognition of: His personal dedication and committed assistance in providing protection to our community from undue harassment from federal agencies.” The award came after years, and hundreds of hours of pro bono work, representing individuals targeted under the Department of Justice’s voluntary interview program. In almost every case, these individuals were targeted for interview simply because of their religious beliefs, places of worship or country of origin and were not suspected of any criminal activity whatsoever. The voluntary interview program is simply an intelligence gathering effort designed to collect data about the Muslim community in hopes of preventing future acts of terrorism. more...
May 22, 2009
THE GITMO DILEMMA
Don’t We Have Prison Space for a Few More?
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Shortly after assuming the presidency, Barak Obama announced his intention to close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which currently houses 240 individuals classified as “enemy combatants” suspected of having engaged in some form of terrorism against the United States. The president stated that he was studying the various options for dealing with these detainees. more...
May 19, 2009
THE RIGHT TO KNOW IN THE REAL WORLD
The President’s Balancing Act; Public’s Right to know, Due Process for Terrorist
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
President Barak Obama has drawn considerable political flak recently from liberal Democrats, human rights groups, and “left-leaning” bloggers for two terror-related decisions: the decision to fight the court-ordered release of dozens of photos of terror suspects being subjected to torture interrogation techniques; and the decision to resurrect the military tribunals set up during the Bush administration to try terror suspects. This new wave of criticism from the president’s natural base of supporters comes of the heels of massive political flak he incurred several weeks ago from Republicans, right-wing radio talk show hosts, and the “new voice” of the Republican Party, former vice-president Dick Cheney, concerning the administration’s decision to release of U.S. Justice Department “terror memos” authorizing CIA torture interrogations in 2002. more...
May 9, 2009
A DEFENSE AGAINST TORTURE
The rule of law prevails over the demands of politics
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In the wake of the Obama administration’s release of the “terror memos” and the political firestorm the release generated, the president has instructed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review all the facts and circumstances surrounding the “torture” interrogations conducted by CIA and U.S. military personnel and make a determination of whether criminal charges should be filed either against those who approved the torture interrogations or those who conducted them, or both. Any decision Attorney General Holder makes will trigger an intense political backlash. more...
April 22, 2009
THE CIA TERROR MEMOS
Legal Opinions Redefine Torture, Criminal Acts
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Bush administration’s 2001 declaration of “war on terror” critically—if not irreparably—injured the constitutional soul of America. This nation can no longer look other civilized countries in directly in the eye and unequivocally say it is the moral leader of the “free world.” The recently released CIA “terror memos” demonstrate that during the eight-year presidential tenure of George W. Bush the United States became a nation that subscribed almost exclusively to the base Machiavellian political dogma of “the end justifies the means.” Those who have defended, and continue to defend, the “torture” practices carried out under the Bush administration say they were a necessary weapon in the “war on terror” declared by President Bush after the three September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States by the international terrorist organization, al-Qaeda. more...
April 20, 2009
TORTURE FALLOUT CONTINUES
Foreign Investigation of Torture Techniques Sanctioned by Bush Administration
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
CIA Director Leon Panetta announced on April 9, 2009 that it would shut down those “black site” secret prisons in foreign countries utilized by the George Bush administration to house, and torture, suspected terrorists—many of whom were kidnapped off public streets in their home countries by either CIA agents or CIA operatives, and who had never been formally charged with any terror-related activity. more...
March 4, 2009
UN-INDICTED
CO-CONSPIRATOR(S):
AN UNNECESSARY STIGMA
The Right Wing and the Council on American-Islamic Relations; No Due Process for the Unindicted
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
What exactly is a un-indicted co-conspirator?
Attorney Peter R. Rient defined the term as any person the Government alleges “agreed with others to violate the law but who is not charged with an offense and who, consequently, will not be tried or sentenced for his criminal conduct.” more...
November 30, 2008
THE WAR ON TERROR ENJOYS RECENT VICTORIES
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
America has a disposition toward war. The nation was created through war, and except for brief periods of respite, America has been at war with itself and other countries throughout its history. When not at war with other nations, America has found a need to declare “war” on one social ill after another, particularly over the last five decades. Beginning with President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” through President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” following 9/11, government officials have consistently used a war slogan to justify one social crusade after another. more...
August 2, 2008
THE RULE OF DUE PROCESS OF LAW GETS OPPORTUNITY TO BE RESTORED; Designation of Enemy Combatant Status
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
How would you feel if you had never been a member of any nation’s military, had never fought alongside any nation’s armed forces, and had never borne arms against the United States anywhere in the world but were suddenly designated an “enemy combatant” by the President of the United States, placed in solitary confinement in a military prison for five years, subjected to torture, held incommunicado from family and attorney, and never had any formal charges brought against you? more...
July 14, 2008
RACIAL PROFILING AND THE FBI
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
On July 3, 2008 the Associated Press reported that the United States Justice Department was considering adoption of new rules that would allow the FBI to investigate persons without any probable cause of wrongdoing. FBI officials said that being able to target for selective investigation Muslims, Arabs and other racial and ethnic groups that fit a “terrorist profile” would enable the agency to fulfill a post 9/11 Congressional mandate to “root out” terrorists before they strike. more...
July 8, 2008
JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA’S DISSENT FROM THE DARK SIDE
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Supreme Court on June 12, 2008 issued a decision that marked the first time in the nation’s history that the constitutional right to the writ of habeas corpus was conferred on enemy aliens detained abroad by American military forces engaged in an ongoing war. See: Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. ____ (2008) [Slip Opinion No. 06-1195 & 06-1196]. more...
June 18, 2008
AMERICA’S TORTURED POLICY OVER TORTURE
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In 1994 America ratified a treaty entitled “Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” This treaty defined “torture” as “ … any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession," when it is "inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity." more...
June 3, 2008
TERRORISM: WILL THE PRIVILEGE AGAINST SELF-INCRIMINATION PREVIAL IN UPCOMING DEATH TRIAL?
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Miami Herald recently reported that the Pentagon has formally approved the application of the death penalty for charges brought against Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the reported architect of 9/11 terror attacks, and four others charged in the conspiracy to carry out those attacks. More...
April 8, 2007
TERROR, TORTURE AND TRANSFERS
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In 2006 the Congress passed the Military Commissions Act. § 7(a)(1) of that Act, applicable through 28 U.S.C. § 2241(e)(1), deprives courts from having jurisdiction over any “application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained in the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.” More...
March 7, 2008
IS WATERBOARDING TORTURE?
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights certainly believes that waterboarding is torture. Louise Arbour in January joined with UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak in the wake of admissions by CIA Director Michael Hayden that the agency had used waterboarding on three terror detainees. Despite the Hayden admissions, the CIA called upon the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether statements by former CIA agent John Kiriakou to various media organizations about waterboarding violated laws prohibiting the release of classified information. More...
January 18, 2008
DESTRUCTION OF THE CIA INTERROGATION TAPES: A SAGA OF OFFICIAL ABUSE OF POWER
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 on the New York World Trade Center’s Twin Towers not only inflicted a terrible human tragedy on America but set into motion reactionary forces within our government that would undermine this nation’s fundamental moral, ethical, and legal obligations to the international community. More...
December 14, 2007
HOW FAR DOES THE POWER OF HABEAS CORPUS EXTEND?
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The United States Supreme Court on December 5, 2007 heard oral arguments in a case that will ultimately answer this critically important constitutional question. See: Boumediene v. Bush, 2007 WL 4252686 (U.S. 2007). More...
October 25, 2007
THE HOLY LAND FOUNDATION VERDICT
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Under its original name Occupied Land Fund, the Holy Land Foundation was established in California in 1989 by Ghassan Elashi and other Palestinian Muslims. The purpose of the Foundation was to provide assistance to Palestinians displaced by a Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The uprising became known as the “intifada.” The most aggressive, and violent, resistance in the intifada came from the Iranian-backed organization called Hamas which had been established in 1987. The leader of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook, was married to Elashi’s cousin. More...
October 22, 2007
U.S. CONSTITUTION IMPALED ON THE SWORD OF FANATICISM
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Last April we reported about the case of Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, who in December 2003 was traveling in Macedonia when he was taken into custody by that nation’s law enforcement officials on some technicality concerning his passport. They held El-Masri in their custody for twenty-three days at a hotel in Skopje before turning him over to American CIA operatives. That began an odyssey of torture for El-Masri and an official plundering of time-honored principles of law set forth in this nation’s Bill of Rights and its Constitution. More...
September 30, 2007
CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS KNOW FIRST HAND THE FBI CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH UNCHECKED INVESTIGATIVE POWERS, ADMINISTRATIVE SUBPOENAS
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The USA Patriot Act was became law on October 26, 2001 – some six weeks after the 9/11 terrorists attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The Act increased the government’s surveillance powers in both criminal and intelligence investigations, permitting an easier process for the law enforcement and intelligence communities to share information while conducting these two types of investigations. More...
September 29, 2007
THE LAW AND CONTRADICTION
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
It has been said that the law is a mystery. One thing is certain: those who make and interpret the law often reach contradictory and antipodean results. This reality frequently reduces the law’s noble pursuit of justice irrelevant. Two recent news stories underscores this reality: the decision by the United States Senate to block efforts by a bipartisan effort to restore the right of terrorism suspects to utilize habeas corpus to challenge their detention and other remedies to challenge conditions of their confinement; and the decision by U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger declaring unconstitutional the three-drug protocol used to execute condemned inmates in Tennessee. More...
September 19, 2007
POLICE POWERS VERSUS RIGHT OF PRIVACY/FREE SPEECH
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Texas Legislature recently increased the powers of law enforcement to conduct electronic surveillance. The new legislation (SB823) allows cities with populations of 500,000 or more to operate their own “pen register” devices that have the capacity to capture real time outgoing telephone numbers dialed from a targeted telephone. More...
September 1, 2007
STATEMENTS OF CO-CONSPIRATORS: Criminal Defense Attorneys must Fight to Prevent Admission of Prejudicial Statements of Unindicted Co-Conspirators
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In December 2001 the Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was shut down after being accused by the federal government of being a fund-raising front for Hamas, a militant Palestinian group the United States has designated as a terrorist organization. The government charged that the self-described Muslim charity organization had funneled $12 million in illegal aid to Hamas. Another approximately 250 Muslim groups and individuals were named as “unindicted co-conspirators.” More...
August 25, 2007
THE JOSE PADILLA CONVICTION: A BUSH VICTORY OR A DEFEAT FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Jose Padilla was initially arrested in 2002 at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, with a lot fanfare by the U.S. Justice Department, on a charge that he was involved in a plot to plant a radiological “dirty bomb” in the United States. He was declared an “enemy combatant” and transferred to military custody at a naval brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Reportedly, he was subjected to physical torture, relentless interrogations, and a litany of other physical/psychological abuses and deprivations over the next three years before both military and intelligence investigators, as well as federal prosecutors, concluded there was no “dirty bomb” plot. More...
August 15, 2007
TERRORISM SENTENCING ENHANCEMENT
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Sabri Benkahla was convicted on charges of making false statements to a federal grand jury and lying to the FBI and for obstructing justice with statements that he had never seen or received military-type training in Pakistan and possibly Afghanistan in 1999. See, United States v. Benkahla, 2007 WL 2254657 (E.D.Va. Aug. 3, 2007). More...
August 11, 2007
FISA AND THE PROTECT AMERICA ACT OF 2007
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
On August 5 President George W. Bush signed into law The Protect America Act of 2007.
“We know that information we have been able to acquire about foreign threats will help us detect and prevent attacks on our homeland,” President Bush said upon signing the controversial legislation. “Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence, has assured me that this bill gives him the most immediate tools he needs to defeat the intentions of our enemies. And so in signing this legislation today, I am heartened to know that his critical work will be strengthened and we will be better armed to prevent attacks in the future.” More...
August 1, 2007
DEFENDING TERRORISM CRIMES
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Defending any criminal case is a monumental undertaking, even those seemingly “open-and-shut” cases. But defending a terrorism case demands not only the utmost professional skill but a reserve of personal courage. A criminal defense lawyer in a terrorism case understands at the outset that the Government will bring to bear all its awesome prosecutorial resources to secure a criminal conviction. The defense lawyer must be prepared to attempt to match resource with resource in defense of his client. Further, the lawyer representing a person accused of terrorism, like others accused of heinous crimes which stir public demands for punishment, must remain focused and stand fast to defend and protect this most vulnerable client if the rule of law and principles of fairness and justice are to survive. More...
June 28, 2007
THE “GREAT WRIT” SURVIVES TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is a Qatari national and a legal resident of the United States. He lawfully entered the United States with his wife and children on September 10, 2001, to pursue a master's degree at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where he had obtained a bachelor's degree in 1991. The very next day, September 11, terrorists hijacked four jet airliners and ruthlessly attacked the sovereignty of the United States. More...
June 18, 2007
THE INFORMANT IN THE NEW YORK TERROR PLOT
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Earlier this month (June ’07) the federal government indicted four men – one from Trinidad, another from Tobago, and the other two from Guyana – in a “terror plot” that targeted New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Labeled “homegrown terrorists,” the four men were introduced to the American public with sensational media fanfare and boogaboo warnings from federal law enforcement officials. More...
May 28 2007
THE TERROR ATTACK ON CIVIL LIBERTIES
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
America has lauded itself as a country that cherishes individual liberty. Our constitution and the Bill of Rights are held out as models for the rest of the world to immolate. But America has never been comfortable protecting civil liberties in times of national crises. More...
May 1, 2007
Government Continues Assault on Writ of Habeas Corpus
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri is a resident alien in the United States. He was arrested in this country and labeled an “unlawful enemy combatant.” He has an appeal pending before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. This appeal raises several significant issues:
Can the provisions of the Military Commissions Act which foreclose habeas corpus relief to an “enemy combatant” be applied to an individual who has not been “properly determined” to be an enemy combatant? More...
April 27, 2007
State Secrets Privilege Used to Protect Executive Misconduct, Invites use of Torture
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Fourth Circuit in El-Masri v. United States, 479 F.3d 296 (4th Cir. 2007) recently issued a decision that brings into focus the dangerous threat posed by the “war of terror” to the United States Constitution and our historically sacred Bill of Rights. More...
April 17, 2007
Court Allows U.S. Citizen to be Executed in Iraq
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Mohammad Munaf is an American citizen. In 2005 he traveled to Iraq where, one year later, he was convicted on kidnapping charges and sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq. See, Munaf v. Green, WL 1029074 (D.C. Cir. 04/06/07) More...
April 12, 2007
Boumediene v. Bush; Court Turns Deaf Ear to Fundamental Principals of the Great Writ of Habeas Corpus and Gives Big Brother a Blank Check.
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
On April 2, 2007 the United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia which, in February, ruled that Guantanamo Bay detainees did not have a right to habeas corpus review of their indefinite confinement or any other constitutional protections. Boumediene v. Bush, 476 F.3d 981 (D.C. Cir. 2007). The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the Boumediene appeal effectively closes the door to any judicial relief for the approximately 385 held at the Guantanamo facility for more than five years - unless the Supreme Court at some point chooses to revisits Boumediene issues. More...
April 11, 2007
Evidence of Torture may become Public at Padilla Trial
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In May 2002 Jose Padilla arrived at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport abroad an international flight from Zurich, Switzerland where he was taken into custody by federal law enforcement authorities on a Material Witness Warrant. The federal authorities had allegedly obtained information, through torture interrogation, from al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah that implicated Padilla in suspected terrorist activity against the government of the United States. The U.S. Justice Department released information that Padilla was part of an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in an American city. More...
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