Mistrial in terror case is another US misstep; Conviction record post-9/11 is spotty

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/24/mistrial_in_terror_cas
e_is_another_us_misstep/
 
By Adam Liptak and Leslie Eaton, New York Times News Service  |  October 24,
2007

NEW YORK - There was a time when federal prosecutors would consistently win
terrorism prosecutions.

Between 1993 and 2001, prosecutors in Manhattan convicted some three dozen
terrorists through guilty pleas and in six major trials.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the government's track record has been decidedly
spottier, and its failure to obtain a single conviction on Monday in its
terrorism financing prosecution of what was once the nation's largest
Islamic charity was another in a series of missteps and setbacks.

The comparisons are in some ways unfair; the earlier prosecutions were for
acts of violence or for conspiracies that were relatively close to fruition.
The recent ones have often relied on the less colorful charge that the
defendants had given "material support" to a terrorist organization. That
shift is itself reflective of a conscious change in Washington's law
enforcement strategy, to prevention from punishment.

But some scholars and former prosecutors say that the government should have
known better than to bring some of its recent failed cases and that a lack
of selectivity and judgment, along with a reliance on stale evidence and
links to groups not at the core of the current threat, may be harming the
effort to combat terrorism.

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