Nation & world briefing
Court struggles with interrogation limits
Shannon McCaffrey
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — Supreme
Court justices sounded conflicted
Wednesday as they wrestled with
the question of whether aggressive
police interrogations violate the
Constitution.
The case before them involved a
California farm worker who was
shot five times by a police officer
and then aggressively questioned
in an emergency room by the offi
cer’s supervisor, without being
read his rights.
The shooting left Oliverio Mar
tinez blind and paralyzed below
the waist.
As the justices contemplated
whether police abused their author
ity in questioning a seriously
wounded man, some also were
thinking about how their ruling
might affect counterterrorism in
vestigations.
“Suppose this is someone you be
lieve is going to blow up the World
Trade,” Justice Antonin Scalia
asked, hypothetically.
“You could beat him with a rub
ber hose?”
Justice Stephen Breyer wondered
why questioning a wounded man in
serious pain isn’t “the equivalent of
beating someone up.”
“What worries me is not so
much this case but what we’re go
ing to write and the implications,”
Breyer said.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
asked whether police questioning
someone suspected of kidnapping
a child who cannot live without re
ceiving medication are entitled to
use coercive questioning to find
the child.
The case came before the jus
tices as federal law enforcement
agents seek for new ways to gather
intelligence from terrorism sus
pects and associates whom they
may have no intention of prose
cuting. The court’s ruling, expect
ed by June, would apply to ques
tioning of U.S. citizens, not foreign
“combatants” like those held at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In the case at hand, two Oxnard,
Calif., police officers investigating
drug activity stopped Martinez in
November 1997. Police say a strug
gle ensued and Martinez grabbed
the gun of one of the officers. The
other officer opened fire, shooting
Martinez in the head, torso and legs.
Oxnard police patrol supervisor
Sgt. Ben Chavez hopped in the am
bulance with Martinez and persist
ed in questioning him even after
medical personnel ordered him to
leave the emergency room.
“I am dying. ... What are you do
ing to me?” Martinez is heard
screaming on a tape Chavez made
of the interrogation.
“If you are going to die, tell me
what happened,” Chavez replied.
Martinez never was informed of
his Miranda rights to remain silent
during the 45-minute interrogation
and twice asked Chavez to leave
him alone.
Martinez, now 34, never was
charged and sued Chavez under the
Civil Rights Act, saying his Fifth
Amendment right against self-in
crimination and his 14th Amend
ment right to due process had been
violated. Chavez argued that as a
public official he was immune to
such lawsuits.
But the U.S. District Court for
Central California, and later the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sided
with Martinez.
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
can see lawyers
Frank Davies
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — A federal judge
ruled Wednesday that Jose Padilla,
accused of plotting with terrorists to
detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb”
on U.S. soil, can meet with his
lawyers and challenge his detention
in federal court.
The judge said he eventually will
decide whether the government is
properly holding Padilla as an enemy
combatant with no legal rights.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge
Michael Mukasey in Newr York was a
legal setback for the Bush adminis
tration, which argued that Padilla,
though a U.S. citizen, had no right to
challenge his status in court and
could be held indefinitely in military
detention.
The Justice Department, citing
the Sept. 11 attacks, had asserted
the broad authority of the execu
tive branch in time of war to hold
enemy combatants, including U.S.
citizens, without charges or access
to an attorney.
In addition, Bush officials argued
that courts had extremely limited
authority to review how the
executive branch handled enemy
combatants.
Mukasey’s thorough, 102-page
ruling also contained an important
victory for the government. He said
the president and military have the
authority to detain enemy combat
ants and that Padilla’s detention “is
not per se unlawful,” despite
his citizenship.
The judge said he will eventually
decide the fundamental question of
whether the government properly
shifted Padilla from the criminal jus
tice system, with a wide array of
rights, to the military — where he
has none.
“This ruling shows that federal
district judges with lifetime tenure
provide a serious line of defense for
civil liberties,” said Eugene Fidell,
president of the nonpartisan Nation
al Institute of Military Justice.
“This is an important victory for
Padilla, but it may be a Pyrrhic vie
tory, because the judge is saying in
the end he will be very deferential
to executive branch authority,”
Fidell said.
Lucas Guttentag, an ACLU attor
ney who filed a brief on behalf of
Padilla, said, “This ruling is a cru
cial rejection of the Bush adminis
tration’s claim of almost unbridled
power to unilaterally detain U.S.
citizens and hold them indefinitely
and incommunicado.”
White House and Justice Depart
ment officials said they were study
ing the ruling, and had not decided
whether to seek a stay to block Padil
la from meeting with his lawyers,
Donna Newman and Andrew Patel.
“I do note the court did uphold
the president’s constitutional
authority to direct the military
to detain unlawful enemy combat
ants in order to protect the Ameri
can people in this war on terror
ism,” said Ari Fleischer, White
House spokesman.
Padilla, a former Chicago gang
member, was arrested at Chicago’s
O’Hare Airport on May 8 and was
held for a month in New York un
der a material witness warrant as
part of a massive anti-terrorism
investigation.
© 2002, The Miami Herald. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.
Passengers on another cruise ship get stomach illness
InaPaivaCordle
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
MIAMI—Another cruise ship that
sailed from Fort Lauderdale to the
Caribbean has reported 117 cases of
gastrointestinal illness.
The Centers for Disease Control
said Wednesday that 114 of 1,859
passengers and three of 868 crew
members on board P&O Cruises
U.K.’s Oceana, which departed from
Port Everglades on Nov. 29, have
contracted a stomach virus.
All of the passengers on the 14
day cruise originated in the United
Kingdom and flew on chartered air
craft to Fort Lauderdale, CDC
spokeswoman Bernadette Burden
said. Most of the ill passengers were
reported to be from one chartered
flight originating in Manchester,
U.K., but Burden said no information
was available regarding the airline.
A spokesperson for the London
based cruise line could not be
reached late Wednesday. The ship is
scheduled to return to Fort Laud
erdale on Dec. 13.
GDC staff is expected to board the
vessel this week to conduct inter
views with the ill passengers and
crew, do an environmental assess
ment and collect specimens to deter
mine the virus.
It is too early to know whether the
illness is a Norwalk-like virus, which
has stricken passengers on board
several cruise ships in recent weeks.
Symptoms include nausea, vomit
ing, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
The illness usually develops within
12 to 48 hours of exposure and lasts
from one to three days. It can be
dangerous for the elderly and those
with health problems.
Meanwhile, Holland America’s
Amsterdam, which departed Fort
Lauderdale on Sunday, reported
two passengers and one crew mem
ber with gastrointestinal illness by
Wednesday afternoon, the CDG
said. The ship had been taken out
of service for 10 days to be thor
oughly cleaned and disinfected, af
ter 524 passengers and crew on
four sailings were stricken with a
Norwalk-like virus.
So far, the CDG has not deter
mined whether the gastrointestinal
illness that struck 189 passengers
and 13 crew members on the Car
nival Fascination, which arrived in
Miami on Monday, was the Nor
walk-like virus, said David Forney,
chief of CDC’s vessel sanitation
program. The cruise line did not
collect stool specimens, which are
used to make the determination,
he said. CDC staff collected food
and ice samples, however, and lab
oratory tests are pending.
Another ship, the Radisson Sev
en Seas Mariner, reported that five
passengers and 16 crew members
experienced a gastrointestinal ill
ness shortly after leaving Tenerife,
in the Canary Islands, on a 15-day
cruise that ended in Port Ever
glades Monday.
Initial laboratory results have
identified salmonella as the cause,
with shelled eggs as the suspected
source, the CDC said. Samples of
the eggs are being tested and lab re
sults are pending.
© 2002, The Miami Herald.
Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.
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