{"id":3615,"date":"2013-01-07T19:41:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T00:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/?p=3615"},"modified":"2013-01-15T08:26:58","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T13:26:58","slug":"notes-on-a-terrorism-trial-preventive-prosecution-material-support-and-the-role-of-the-judge-after-united-states-v-mehanna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/2013\/01\/notes-on-a-terrorism-trial-preventive-prosecution-material-support-and-the-role-of-the-judge-after-united-states-v-mehanna\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes on a Terrorism Trial \u2013 Preventive Prosecution, \u201cMaterial Support\u201d and The Role of The Judge after United States v. Mehanna"},"content":{"rendered":"

By George D. Brown* —<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to read the full text of the Article<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

4 Harv. Nat\u2019l Sec. J. 1 (2012)<\/p>\n

The terrorism trial of Tarek Mehanna, primarily for charges of providing \u201cmaterial support\u201d to terrorism, presented elements of a preventive prosecution as well as the problem of applying Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project<\/em> (HLP)<\/em> to terrorism-related speech. This Article examines both aspects of the case, with emphasis on the central role of the trial judge. As criminal activity becomes more amorphous, the jury looks to the judge for guidance. His rulings on potentially prejudicial evidence\u2014which may show just how much of a \u201cterrorist\u201d the defendant is\u2014are the key aspect of this guidance. If the defendant is found guilty, the sentence imposed by the judge can have a profound impact on future preventive prosecutions, particularly the judge\u2019s handling of the Sentencing Guidelines\u2019 \u201cTerrorism Enhancement.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for speech issues, there is enough ambiguity in HLP<\/em> to let lower courts formulate and apply its test differently. HLP<\/em> emphasizes coordination with a foreign terrorist organization before speech can be criminalized. There is now movement toward a concept of one-way coordination that can turn speech prosecutions into a form of general prevention of potential terrorists.<\/p>\n

All of these issues were central to the trial of Mehanna. The Article\u2019s analysis of how the trial court handled the various sentencing and speech issues will increase understanding of them, and highlight the central role of the judge.<\/p>\n

* Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Professor of Law, Boston College Law School. A.B., Harvard University, 1961; LL.B., Harvard Law School, 1965.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George D. Brown<\/p>\n

4 Harv. Nat\u2019l Sec. J. 1 (2012)<\/b><\/p>\n

Screen capture courtesy of U.S. Department of Justice<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2013\/01\/USAO.jpg?fit=833%2C467&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZtUX-Wj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}