WHEREAS the officers, directors, and members of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers have dedicated their professional lives to upholding the rule of law and the principles of equal justice and due process;
WHEREAS the military commissions system established at Guantanamo Bay by the President and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 denigrates these fundamental American values by conducting trials that may rely on coerced confessions and uncorroborated and unreliable hearsay, expressly reject the rule of stare decisis, and expressly preclude a defendant from relying upon the Geneva Conventions;
WHEREAS the inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay continues to damage the reputation of the United States and imperil our country’s men and women in uniform across the world,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that NACDL shall urge the next President and Congress of the United States to immediately suspend all pending military commission proceedings and propose legislation to immediately repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006;
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NACDL shall urge the next President and Congress of the United States to charge and prosecute any individual accused of involvement with terrorist activity in the federal criminal justice system, and for those individuals accused of violating the Laws of War as unprivileged belligerents, to charge and prosecute them under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, consistent with the Geneva Conventions;
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NACDL shall urge the next President and Congress of the United States to empty the Guantánamo detention facility of all uncharged prisoners and to transfer any prisoners charged with criminal activity to a secure detention facility within the continental United States.
Tampa, Florida
