I've long maintained that incompetent prosecution is the cornerstone of our liberties. New proof of that comes in the Moussaoui trial, where the government lawyer who was caught coaching witnesses has refused to testify after Judge Leonie M. Brinkema warned that she might face criminal charges. (More details here.)
In fairness to the prosecution, reports indicate that it was Justice Department prosecutors who brought the forbidden coaching to the court's attention. It's nice to know that professionalism persists in the federal civil service.
We give life tenure to judges to insulate them from public and political pressure, but Judge Brinkema must know that she would face a firestorm if she were to end the trial and sentence Moussaoui to only life in prison without possibility of parole. There seems little chance that anyone else will be tried for the 9/11 attack, so all desire for revenge is focused on this one very disturbed man. My guess is that the judge will simply exclude the coached witnesses, which could cripple but would not throw out the government's case.
That being said, one of my law partners asked a cogent question: How could Moussaoui be punished for not revealing his participation in a crime, when he had a Fifth Amendment right to maintain silence? That is, of course, the same right being exercised by the government lawyer who coached the prosecution witnesses in his case.
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