A trial of an alleged criminal was held today, not by the judicial branch, but by the military, operating under the authority of the Executive Branch. The trial included testimony that was obtained from the defendant using coercive methods such as sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation, without a lawyer present, without the defendant having been granted habeas corpus rights. The defendant has since stated that the testimony he gave under that coercion was false. The defendant was imprisoned for years in solitary confinement before even being charged with a crime.
During the trial, journalists and outside observers, watching to make sure that the trial was fair, were forced to leave the courtroom and were not provided with audio or any other form of what took place in the courtroom while they were gone.
All we know is that things happened in the courtroom in secret. No one who was not in the courtroom has any idea, or will be given any idea, of what took place during that time. We are told that there were two witnesses that testified during that time, but we don’t really know if that’s the truth, because the courtroom was closed to outsiders.
What if you were the person under trial? Would you be able to defend yourself under these circumstances?
A special award goes to the first person who identifies how many parts of the Constitution this trial violates.
