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Due Process & Torture
Congress must draft a bill to provide for effective prosecution of terrorists and guarantee due process rights. It is paramount that we restore the writ of habeas corpus for individuals held in US custody. It is critical that we narrow the definition of unlawful enemy combatant to individuals who directly participate in a zone of active combat against the United States and individuals who participated in attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. As your Representative, I will push for legislation that requires the United States fulfill its Geneva Convention obligations. We must live up to our own ideals, and in so doing permit those accused to retain qualified civilian attorneys to represent them at trial or to choose self-representation. I will push to end all forms of torture practiced by this government - we are too great a nation to support such retrograde measures such as torture. There is no place for torture, water boarding, Abu Ghraib, or Guantanamo in American policy or law. We signed the Geneva Conventions; therefore we must follow the Geneva Conventions without creating our own caveats. I feel we should clarify the definition of war crimes in statute to include certain violations of the Geneva Conventions. The Writ of Habeas Corpus must be reaffirmed! Somehow the Bush Administration says that habeas corpus in not a right granted in the U.S. Constitution. They say that it isn't implicit in the Constitution. I'm no lawyer, but I disagree. Habeas corpus was originally defined in the Magna Carta, upon which all western law, including our Constitution, is based: Magna Carta + (39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. + (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice. U.S. Constitution: Article 1 - Section 9 The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. The Bush administration has claimed the power to seize and indefinitely detain anybody it labels an "enemy combatant" with no due process and no lawyer, even if they were seized here in America. The Bush administration built a prison at Guantanamo Bay outside the reach of our courts specifically to evade our laws, thereby creating a symbol that galvanizes our enemies and alienates our allies. In Congress, I will work to shut down Guantanamo and work to resolve the status of the detainees, hundreds of whom have been held for years without ever being charged. I will also work to restore the writ of habeas corpus to reinstate judicial review of detention, rather than allow unchecked executive power. We must protect Americans' privacy and feedom Our government should protect the privacy, communications, and personal records of Americans - not spy on them without court supervision as the Bush administration has done. I will work towards ending the warrantless wiretapping of Americans' phone calls and e-mails and the data-mining of Americans' communications and personal records, restoring judicial review to surveillance of American citizens. I reject retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who have complied with the abuses of the Bush administration. I will work to fix the Patriot Act by restoring important safeguards to the provisions most susceptible to abuse: the "sneak-and-peek" delayed-notice searches, National Security Letters, and the business and library records provisions. |
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