Benghazi Suspect Cleared of Murder Charges, Avoids Death Penalty
Convicted of terrorism charges.
A federal jury has found Ahmed Abu Khatallah, a key suspect of the Benghazi attacks in 2012, guilty on four of the 18 charges he faced. From Fox News:
Khattala, 46, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, one count of maliciously destroying U.S. property and placing lives in danger, and one count of using and carrying a semiautomatic weapon during the attack. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison for the firearms offense and could still receive a life sentence.
In a statement, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Dana Boente said Khattala’s arrest and conviction “were critical steps in our efforts to identify and hold accountable those who were responsible for the terrorist attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, Libya.
“Our work is not done,” Boente added. “We will not rest in our pursuit of the others who attacked our facilities and killed the four courageous Americans who perished that day.”
The jury did not find Khattala guilty of the four murder charges he faced. On the providing support to terrorists charges, “the jury returned a special finding that his actions did not result in death.” If they did then he would have faced life sentences for each one. But now the charge only carries up to 15 years.
The DOJ decided last year to seek out a life sentence for Khattala and not the death penalty.
Parents of two victims spoke out against the verdict. Fox News continued:
The initial attack killed at the U.S. mission killed Chris Stevens, the American ambassador to Libya, and Sean Patrick Smith, a State Department information management officer. Nearly eight hours later at a CIA complex nearby, two more Americans, contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, died in a mortar attack.
“I am not surprised. I am not happy,” Sean Smith’s mother, Pat, said in a statement responding to the verdict. “My son died a horrible death … I think the people who bear responsibility — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — aren’t even touched.”
Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods, called the verdict “outrageous” and “a miscarriage of justice.”
“I am very bothered by the fact the U.S. government gave constitutional rights and due process rights to a foreign national who allegedly killed Americans outside the U.S,” Woods said. “This is what bothered me from the very beginning.”
Stevens and Smith died of smoke inhalation.
President Barack Obama’s administration brought Khattala to the states in 2014 instead of Guantanamo Bay. One official said the capture “was pretty clean” and the suspect “was isolated.”
The joint Special Operations and FBI planned the mission “for months” and executed it after President Barack Obama approved it. No one released details of the operation.
The U.S. transported Khatallah on a Navy Ship, which took about 13 days to arrive back to the states. Reuters explained that U.S. intelligence officials questioned him before anyone read him “his Miranda rights and questioned by FBI agents.” Reuters continued:
He waived his rights to remain silent and have a lawyer present before speaking with the agents. His attorneys had sought to suppress the statements, saying the government had violated his rights.
However, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper issued a lengthy ruling in August that found his statements could be admitted at trial.
In October, U.S. officials caught Mustafa al-Imam, a militant in the attacks, a man named by Khattala during his interrigation..
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Comments
Surely the judge instructed the jury on felony murder.
Only if the prosecution charged under felony murder.
Ms. Chastain’s name is ‘Mary.’
Don’t call her ‘Shirley.’
another victim of the Klinton Krime Konspiracy and the Muslim Brotherhood co conspirator who inhabited 1600 is the understanding of what being at war means.
Does this behavior mean that any jihadists murdering US citizens outside of the USA get constitutional rights ?
wasn’t Guantanamo set up for this purpose ?
How can a Constitutional Republic survive such behavior ?
Rules of evidence can’t be used in a war zone, when fighting to the death is the norm on the jihadi side.
Pres HS Truman would be tried as a war criminal if our ‘enlightened’ understanding of fighting an existential war.
which, make no mistake, this is.
The problem with cases such as this is not that Constitutional rights are granted to foreign combatants, but that the Federal Government has changed the rules with regard to Constitutional protections for defendants in criminal investigations.
Khattala could have been held as a foreign combatant and tried by a military tribunal under the existing acts of war. However, this would have run into the road block of whether the accused committed an illegal act of war.
However, evidence suggests that the capture of Khattala was mounted, from the beginning, with the aim of trying him in a civilian court [the FBI was involved in the planning and was present aboard ship to take custody of the suspect after his interrogation by intelligence agents]. In such a case, any government employee acting to facilitate that end would become an agent of law enforcement and would be subject to the the rules governing the requirements for admissibility of evidence in a criminal proceeding. It is one thing to seize a person for the purposes of extracting intelligence and then, later, learning that he had knowledge of a crime. In such a case a reasonable argument can be made that a firewall exists between the intelligence agent and the law enforcement agent. However, that was no the case here.
As to the government’s arguments that Khattala voluntarily waived his rights when questioned by the FBI “clean team”, this assumes that he understood that only his statements made after Miranda would be admissible. Unless he was provided with independent legal council prior to being questioned by the FBI, strong grounds to grant a motion to suppressed, based upon a lack of understanding of the “firewall”, exist. After all, it is logical to assume that if one has already given this information to government intelligence employees that it would be available to law enforcement agents as well. Most people out side the US, and many of them inside the US, have no real idea how our evidenciary system works.
If we are going to use the status of enemy combatant to hold a person, then that person should be handled as an enemy combatant, rather than a criminal defendant, unless no knowledge of criminal offenses existed when the subject was taken prisoner.
This is the smelly legacy of barry obama. Still stinks as bad as it did in 2008.
Moooooooooochelle in 2020!
Really disgusting, and think about juries that won’t comvict a murderer of an American Ambassador?
Really disgusting
Well of course he didn’t murder them, The video killed those Americans.
Upon reading the headline “Benghazi Suspect Cleared of Murder Charges, Avoids Death Penalty,” one gets the immediate impression hillary klinton got off again.
Dump AG Swamp Sessions – now more than ever.
Chris Stevens, Sean Patrick Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were not available for comment.