The government introduced an interesting exhibit in a pretrial motion in the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: a photograph of the scene of the alleged crime.
Here it is, in all of it’s scanned, black-and-white Xeroxed glory:
Afghan National Police Station - Ghazni, Afghanistan
The exhibit was tacked on to a motion opposing a Rule 15 deposition of a gentleman named Abdul Qadeer, the Chief of Counterterrorism of the Afghan National Police. Mr. Qaneer evidently witnessed something happen in that room. The defense wishes to depose him in Afghanistan. The prosecution doesn’t think this is necessary for several reasons, including the fact that it hasn’t been shown why Qaneer would be unable to travel to the U.S for the trial.
Ah, extraterritorial justice. What wonderful situations these cases create. We saw a similar situation in the trial of Chucky Taylor, which I’ll cover in my book. (And, I know similar logistical concerns arose in the U.S. vs. Nazario case.) But, this motion reinforces the inherent difficulty defense counsel face in fighting these prosecutions. If they’re not at a financial disadvantage, then they’re usually in a race against the clock and the map.
One may end up wondering if the ability to conduct a fair trial suffers in direct proportion to the distance between the courtroom and the scene of the crime.