Guantanamo contempt conviction overturned

Hon. Royce C. Lamberth

Senior federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth has overturned the contempt conviction imposed by a Guantanamo military commission judge on U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General John G. Baker, chief defense counsel of the military commissions. Judge Lamberth, who long ago served as an Army judge advocate, ruled that he had jurisdiction over General Baker's habeas corpus petition, that General Baker's claim was not moot, and that the contempt conviction was invalid because it was decided only by the military judge and not by the voting members of the commission, as the Military Commissions Act requires. Click here for Carol Rosenberg's account.