Law is looser prosecuting Lackawanna, Oregon men

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Law is looser prosecuting Lackawanna, Oregon men
 

 

 
Hearsay is admissible; conspiracy charge doesn't require proof of crime
 

 

 
The Associated Press
 

 

 
(October 14, 2002) — PORTLAND, Ore. — Two key exceptions to general criminal law may allow prosecutors to use even weak evidence to build a case against a dozen men suspected of terrorism charged in Oregon and western New York, legal scholars say.
 

 
Unlike most crimes, proof of conspiracy does not require an actual crime and hearsay is allowed.
 

 
“In the legal world, conspiracy is called the ‘darling’ of prosecutors,” said Robert Precht, a University of Michigan law professor. “It’s the closest American law comes to a `thought crime’ because the paradox of conspiracy law is there need not be any crime at all.”
 

 
Instead, all that is needed is evidence that two or more people agreed to commit a crime and took at least one step called an “overt act” -- however trivial and even perfectly legal -- toward planning that crime or carrying it out.
 

 
“There have to be overt acts in pursuance of the conspiracy but those overt acts can be perfectly innocuous things, like getting on a plane at JFK, so you don’t need a lot,” said Abraham Sofaer, a Stanford law professor.
 

 
Also, the nearly ironclad legal principle that bars hearsay -- testimony by one person who was merely told what another person said -- does not apply to co-conspirators, said Phil Heymann, a Harvard law professor.
 

 
The six people indicted earlier this month in Oregon face charges of conspiracy to levy war against the United States, conspiracy to provide support to al-Qaeda, and conspiracy to contribute services to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
 

 
In Lackawanna, Erie County, the five suspects arrested last month and a sixth arrested in Bahrain are awaiting indictment under the same conspiracy law, said the FBI.
 

 
Attorney General John Ashcroft called the Oregon arrests “a defining day in America’s war against terrorism.”
 

 
But Heymann argued that facts disclosed so far show a group of disenfranchised young people. “They look like very small potatoes, like full-time losers,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that losers can’t do damage, but to claim this is a defining moment?”
 

 

 
The Lackawanna case may have more serious implications because all six are accused of training at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan, said Todd Gaziano, director of the Heritage Foundation center for legal and judicial studies in Washington.
 

 
Even though all the suspects may have traveled legally and committed no actual crimes or violence along the way, the group mentality is considered the greatest threat under conspiracy law