Father Emmett Jarrett’s Closing Statement for the Defense

My name is Father Emmett Jarrett, and I speak today for one who cannot speak for himself, Osam Ahmad, a prisoner at Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba.

I was looking forward to speaking about my friend and fellow priest, Bill Pickard, who was charged, with Chris Brandt, under 40USC 6134, when two of the gentlest men I know were accused of threatening behavior, obscene language, and making a harangue – but Ms Acevedo dropped that charge yesterday.

All of us defendants now stand charged under 40 USC6135, which makes it a crime to “parade, stand or move in procession or assemblages in the Supreme Court Building or grounds, or to display…a flag, banner, or device designed or adapted to bring into public notice a party, organization or movement.”

The DC Court of Appeals ruled on January 30, 2007, in Potts et al v U.S. that “an orange jump suit and black hood constituted ‘device(s) designed or adapted to bring into public notice’ a ‘movement,’ for the purpose of statute setting forth offense.”

While this decision is also being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, we do not argue that the wearing of the costume of Guantanamo detainees on January 11, 2008, was without a purpose. Our intention was to put dramatically before the court – both the Supreme Court of the U.S. and the higher court of public opinion and conscience, the plight of the men detained at Guantanamo and elsewhere without being charged with any crime, without legal counsel in many cases, theirght to know the evidence against them and confront their accusers, and the right of habeas corpus; not to mention their human right, guaranteed by the Geneva Convention, the U.N. Convention on Torture, and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, to all of which oru country and its Government are signatory – NOT TO BE TORTURED!.

The Government in this trial has made much of the fact that “protests” are legal on the public sidewalks and in parks, but prohibited on the grounds of the Supreme Court. One can protest anything one wants to, in most any manner one wishes to, as long as it is away from the center of judicial authority.

But we came to the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008, to present a letter to the justices, asking them to act on behalf of detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo, to restore their human and legal rights – to give voice to the voiceless. That letter has been entered into evidence here.

The defense did not have to show that we were NOT THERE, but that we were there for a legitimate, moral, and constitutionally protected PURPOSE.

Our purpose was not “to be arrested.” One does not act in nonviolent witness in order to be arrested. We risk arrest for the cause of justice, and we are willing to suffer the consequences of our action.

The Government has not proved its case. The Government has produced no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt proving that any defendant violated Section 6135.

Several defendants were misidentified and several more were never placed in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. In fact, Government has still produced no evidence proving that any one defendant engaged in any particular conduct.

Ms. Acevedo has referenced “meetings,” as if attending meetings were in and of itself illegal. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. certainly attended meetings during the struggle for civil rights, as have so many others. Further, the Government has produced no evidence that any particular defendant attended any meeting.

You have heard testimony regarding the chaos initiated by the police inside the court and you have also heard evidence that the police outside the court gave the defendants no information regarding moving to the sidewalk.

I want to incorporate by reference the Motion for Judgment of Acquittal presented earlier.

It was noted by the defense in this court that the defendants in this trial have gotten further along in the criminal justice system than ANY of the men who are imprisoned at Guantanamo.

In the testimony for the defense, Tarak Kauff, a veteran, stated that he acted on January 11 in obedience to the oath he took when he entered the Armed Forces of the U.S., “to uphold and defend the Constitution of the U.S.” Your Honor, I took that same oath on April 1, 1959 – before most of the Guantanamo prisoners were born! – and I acted in the same way on January 11, 2008.

The court has heard from defendant Timothy Nolan, a medical practitioner among the poor in western North Carolina. He acted on January 11, 2008, in fulfillment of the ethical principles of his medical profession. Tim Nolan is a “mandated reporter” of abuse under the law. And his Hippocratic oath “to do no harm” was the basis for his action.

Your Honor, on January 11, 2008, we who are on trial here today made a witness against our Government’s policy of torture, indefinite imprisonment, and denial of habeas corpus. The U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo, in operation since January 11, 2002, is both a symbol of our national apostacy, and the place where these crimes are committed in our name.

Today we have offered a legal defense of our actions at the U.S. Supreme Court. We also offer a moral justification for our action. It was a witness to conscience and truth. Our testimony in your court is likewise a witness to the moral basis of law.

To summarize, those arrested inside the Great Hall of the Supreme Court, as you have heard, were arrested – some without any warning – before any demonstration occurred, before any banner was unfurled, and the “noise” began after the arrests began. Their only “crime” was wearing orange T-shirts. They were carrying a letter to the justices. Basically, nothing happened to require arrest. Defendants clearly met the “tourist standard” for noise-making. Those arrested outside, on the steps of the Court, were basically kneeling in prayer. Their First Amendment rights were violated because they were not informed of their option to continue their witness on the public sidewalk.

In conclusion, Your Honor, this morning several of us prayed with a Franciscan community in Northwest Washington. The reading from our Scriptures – the Christian Testament – was the story told by St Mark of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, who cried out as Jesus was going through Jericho with his disciples, on his way to Jerusalem to confront not only the Roman Empire but his own people’s leadership, in the name of the God of justice. When the poor beggar cried out, everyone told him to stop, to be quiet, not to bother them. But Bartimaeus would not be quiet. He continued to cry out, until Jesus heard him, asked him what he wanted, and restored his sight. Then Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way.

Today we, like blind Bartimaeus, cry out for justice for the prisoners held by our Government at Guantanamo. We, too, cry out for justice, not just for ourselves but for them. We seek to give voice to the voiceless.

We are in good company.

And we invite you, Judge Gardner, and Ms. Acevedo, and all in this court, to join us in our cry. We ask you, Judge Gardner, to acquit us of the charges against us because of our witness.

We ask you, we invite you, we plead with you to join us in acting to end torture and restore habeas corpus to prisoners at Guantanamo and elsewhere.

Be our companions. Join our good company.

Thank you.