SEATTLE — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to consider reinstating part of the conviction of would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, a case the government says will greatly affect terrorism prosecutions.
Ressam, an Algerian national, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005 after being convicted on nine counts for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around Jan. 1, 2000.
Customs agents in Port Angeles caught him with explosives in the trunk of his rental car when he drove off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. The ensuing scare prompted the cancellation of New Year’s celebrations at Seattle’s Space Needle.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out one count, in which Ressam was convicted of carrying explosives during the commission of another serious crime.
The appeals court — relying on a 1985 opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy when he was a 9th Circuit judge — said the law required prosecutors to show the explosives were not simply carried at the same time another felony was committed, but that the explosives possession was “in relation to” the felony.
In Ressam’s case, the underlying crime was lying on a customs form.
The government argued that other appeals courts have determined that “nothing in the provision says the explosives must have been carried ‘in relation to’ the underlying felony,” and that because the crime carries a minimum 10-year sentence, it’s an important tool for putting away terrorists who are caught before they use explosives they have acquired.
In a brief, the defense team noted that Ressam’s 22-year sentence was calculated independently of the guideline sentencing range as a way to take his post-trial cooperation into account. Therefore, whether Ressam was convicted on the explosives-carrying charge had no bearing on his ultimate sentence, making the discussion about the 9th Circuit’s decision purely academic.
If the Supreme Court reinstates the conviction, the case will be returned to the 9th Circuit to hear the government’s arguments that the 22-year sentence was unreasonably low, considering the damage Ressam intended to inflict.
If the Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s decision, the case will be returned to U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle for new sentencing proceedings, based on Ressam’s conviction on the other eight counts.
Cases accepted
Some cases that the Supreme Court accepted Friday:
@1. Body FYI Bullet:A bid by two naturalized U.S. citizens to stop American forces in Baghdad from turning them over to Iraqi authorities.
A lawsuit by a Wal-Mart employee who was denied an equivalent position after she became disabled.
Indiana’s appeal of a state court ruling that a defendant judged mentally competent to stand trial also must be allowed to represent himself.
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