WINNEMUCCA — Are we a people who actually believe in all that highfalutin language in the Bill of Rights -- like due process, the right of the accused to face his accuser, the presumption of innocence, and public trials by jury?

Or, when push comes to shove and we’re faced with a faceless enemy, are we willing to chuck those ideals to get the terrorists?

The balance between our ideals and fighting terrorism was the subject of conversation during Nevada’s 2011 Law Day, held on Thursday (May 5). Winnemucca, along with Carson City and Las Vegas, was chosen for live discussion through video conferencing equipment, but the event was streamed via the Internet across the state, nation, and world.

Students from Lowry High School, McDermitt Combined School, and Winnemucca Jr. High School attended the event at the 6^th Judicial District Court.  Students from Humboldt County addressed the state (shown top photo Jessica Rackley and to the right Sterling Snow).

To facilitate the discussion the students were shown the short film The Response, which was based on actual transcripts from military tribunals convened to determine if detainees at Guantanamo Bay were classified correctly as enemy combatants.

The film demonstrates the frustration by all those involved.

In the film the detainee has been held without trial for four years at Guantanamo Bay.  He alleges to have been tortured by US troops.

He is repeatedly asked if he associated with terrorists, but the information against him was classified so he’s not told who he allegedly associated with.  He denied being aware that anyone he associated with was a terrorist. However, because he worked on several construction projects it was possible there were terrorists among the workers.

The film also showed cultural misunderstandings as the detainee attempted to explain sometimes a Jihad involved killing people, but not always.  He explained he was on a humanitarian Jihad that involved building Mosques in poor countries.

On the other side were the members of the military tribunal struggling to find balance between protecting American troops from terrorists and living up to their ideals of due process, trial, the presumption of innocence and the right of the accused to face his accuser.

In the case of those being held at Guantanamo Bay, the evidence against them was classified, making it hard for those involved to defend themselves since they didn’t know exactly what they were being accused of.

The film ends on a split vote with one member of the tribunal voting to continue the enemy combatant classification, one voting against continuing to classify the detainee as an enemy combatant, and one undecided.

When the film ended, the participating students were asked what they thought.  Was there enough evidence to classify the detainee as an enemy combatant?   Less than ten students in the three locations  thought the evidence was there for that classification.

Irene Diaz, who’s in the 8^th grade at WJHS, voted with the group who thought the detainee was an enemy combatant.

She told SPJ the detainee appeared to avoid answering questions and he waited a long time before answering the questions about whether or not he was participating in a Jihad.

As every kid knows, when someone in authority – mom or teacher – asks a question you better have a ready answer or you risk looking dishonest.

Diaz said she enjoyed the program and was interested in the law.  When asked if she had ever given Guantanamo Bay a thought in her life, she answered in the negative but said she was going to start paying attention.

Diaz said, “I didn’t know they had so many problems.”

Adriana Rodriguez (shown right, center), a senior at McDermitt School, also agreed she had not put much previous thought into Guantanamo Bay – but she was going to start paying attention.

In the film it was noted the detainee was arrested after another person, who was being tortured at  the time, gave his name as a terrorist.

Rodriguez asked the question, “How do you know?  A person could be framed.”

She repeated a comment made during discussion by Justice Hardesty to the students, “The resolution of these kinds of problems are going to occur on your watch – not ours.”

She said young people should pay attention to world events and said, “Our voice and opinion matters.”

When asked what she thought of the program, Rodriguez answered, “It was awesome.”

Judge Michael Montero facilitated the Winnemucca event and was joined by Public Defender Matt Stermitz, Chief Deputy DA Kevin Pasquale, and DA Mike Macdonald.

Stermitz told the audience there’s a process that assures fair play and without that process things here would not be that much different than at Guantanamo Bay.  He said, “We must diligently protect the rules we have in the US.”

Joining the conversation from other locations was the film’s writer/producer Sig Libowitz and Nevada Supreme Court Justices Nancy M. Saitta and James Hardesty.

Libowitz noted Americans were told those at Guantanamo Bay were the worst of the worst terrorists.  Then it turned out some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Others had been turned over to Americans for the bounty.  There were others whose names were given because someone they knew was being tortured into giving up names.

He said, “At times like these we need to hold on to the Constitution and the rule of law.”

The Justices explained certain important law principles to the students such as the role of the Nevada Supreme Court, the history of Law Day, and some of the important Constitutional issues under discussion.

Also joining the discussion was John Adams, portrayed by Clark County teacher Jeff Hinton.

The theme for Law Day 2011  was “The Legacy of John Adams from Boston to Guantanamo Bay.”

Adams has a notable place in law history as the person who defended those accused of murder following what came to be known as the Boston Massacre.  Despite being pro-Independence, Adams believed in rule of law and the right of the accused to be represented by legal counsel.  This was, of course, long before there was a Bill of Rights that made such action required.  Adams just believed it was the right thing to do.

Further Reading:

The Response

Law Day Live 2011

John Adams