September 11 self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is on trial before a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal. But by day one the arraignment hearing was already hitting some snags. All of the 9/11 suspects refused to enter pleas on the charges of orchestrating the September 11 terrorist attacks. Many refused to wear the headsets to hear the translation of the trial. If found guilty, the men could face the death penalty.
But the defendants aren’t the only ones being judged during this trial. Regardless of outcome, the trial will also have great consequences for how people around the world view American justice. Col. Morris Davis was chief prosecutor for the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from 2005 to 2007. Col. Davis is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. He also teaches legal writing at Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. Carol Rosenberg is a reporter for the Miami Herald who attended the hearings at Guantanamo Bay.
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