Wednesday, June 24, 2009

CAAF halts appellate proceedings in Akbar

CAAF yesterday ordered ACCA's proceedings in the capital case of United States v. Akbar stayed as CAAF considers a petition for extraordinary relief. See Akbar v. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, __ M.J. ___, No. 09-8026/AR (C.A.A.F. June 23, 2009) (order); Akbar v. United States, __ M.J. ___, No. 09-8025/AR (C.A.A.F. June 23, 2009) (order). We've posted CAAF's orders here. The underlying issue on the petition for extraordinary relief deals with whether the United States and ACCA erred in denying litigation resources to Akbar's appellate defense counsel. The government was ordered to show cause by 6 July why CAAF shouldn't order the requested relief.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know the basis for the Government's opposition for such resources at ACCA?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the defense wants it. :)

Anonymous said...

In a nutshell, my understanding based on what was posted previously on this blog is that defense wants a psychiatrist and/or psychologist because there were problems at the original trial.

I believe there are also some time issues and mitigation specialist issues.

Generally though, as ANON 1013 said, usually if the defense wants it, the government doesn't. ;)

Good to know CAAF will look at it, and decide one way or the other with what one can assume is a deep look.