Bad Baseball Analogies and all, Hamdan's Conviction Reflects Return of Core American Values

--Michael J. Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel for Guantánamo, said the defense was encouraged by the verdict. “For a team that was expected to strike out at every pitch,” Mr. Berrigan said, “we at least hit a triple."

Quoted from William Glaberson, Panel Convicts bin Laden Driver in Split Verdict (Aug. 7, 2008), available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/washington/07gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin.

First the two Coreys go straight to DVD and now a famous lawyer goes on the record as being dumbstrikenly ignorant of our national pastime. (You don't "strike out at every pitch," buddy. It takes at least three.) I suppose we shouldn't be so surprised. The government's been preaching a one-strike-your-out rule for a good while.

Bad baseball analogies aside, Mr. Hamdan's military commissions trial remarkably illustrates that the realist root of the American Spirit is not completely dead. Urged to impose a blistering penalty on essentially a nobody in the Wild World of Terror, the uniformed jury chose instead to land a hefty left hook across the prosecution's jaw. That left hook has since been seen piercing the hearts of the Military Commission's crony appointees, and was last reported to be in route for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Despite the sentence imposed, the Hamdan affair was not a vindication of the fairness embodied in the Military Commissions Act nor was it a milestone in the War on Terror. It was instead a tried and true reflection of core American values.

In America, it appears that freedom is still the only commodity that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with money. Why else would anyone have bothered to stand up for Mr. Hamdan for the last five years? Surely the lawyers representing him could have found something better to do with their time than challenge the Guantanamo detention system on three separate occasions before the Supreme Court, not to mention prepare for a trial filled with uniformed soldiers, secrete evidence, and the threat of coerced confessions. (They could have at least taken in a few games at Camden Yards.) It may be borderline fighting for the sake of fighting, but when freedom's at stake, it appears that some Americans still say, "Damn the torpedoes [and bullish markets], full steam ahead."

In America, it also appears that we still feel compelled to stand in a nobody's corner when the rest of the room wreaks with an unjust stench. I seriously doubt that the hate harbored against the United States by those subjected to extraordinary rendition comes close to the respect and gratitude that Mr. Hamdan feels for all of those Americans who stood up for him and his right to a fair trial.

Finally, in America, it appears that juries, even uniformed juries, don't take kindly to prosecutors who equate thug peons with masterminded ringleaders, nor do juries like it when prosecutors keeps evidence from them under the guise of national security. It looks as though we still want the whole story and we want the man in charge, not his shop clerk.

In my mind, America's core values stand for substance over form, real over imagined. It's refreshing to see that even under the command of something as un-American as the Military Commissions Act, America's sense of realism prevails. In that regard, I conclude with a message to Mr. Berrigan:

Here is the link to the MLB Rulebook: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/foreword.jsp. The fate of America and its people rests with your ability to memorize these rules.

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