In a panel discussion at The University of Toledo College of Law on Monday, Oct. 28, four law students will share their experiences as military commission observers at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The free, public event titled “GTMO: A Firsthand Account on the Shifting Sands of the 9/11 and Al-Nashiri Military Commissions” will be held at noon in Law Center Room 1013.
Over the past four months, six UT law students have been designated by the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions as observers at the military commissions held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
Four students, Steven Allen, Linda Amrou, Trent Sulek and Audrey Sweeney, will participate in the panel.
“This is experiential learning at the highest level,” said Benjamin Davis, UT associate professor of law. “The goal is to have students experience on the ground the complexities of the military commission system put in place since 9/11 and come to their own view about the quality of the process through observing the hearings and meeting with prosecutors and defense attorneys in these cases.
“Students are able to exchange experiences with other high-level observers from the American Bar Association, the National Institute of Military Justice, the National Association of District Attorneys, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and human rights non-governmental organizations.”
Davis, who observed pretrial hearings for the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and others in Fort Meade, Md., in October 2012 and in Guantanamo in January, will moderate the discussion.
The event is presented by the International Law Society and the American Constitutional Society.
