Gregory Chandler : United States v. Al-Moayad

United States v. Al-Moayad, 545 F. 3d 139 (2nd Cir. 2008)

In this case, the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, vacated convictions for a conspiracy to provide material support to designated terrorist organizations (Hamas and Al-Qaeda). The Court held it was an abuse of discretion to admit extensive testimony about a bus bombing by Hamas and about an Al-Qaeda training camp. The defendants were not charged with planning or carrying out the bus bombing and no evidence connected them to that or any other terrorist act, and they never denied knowledge of Hamas' involvement in violent acts, so the evidence had "questionable probative value," which was substantially outweighed by the effect of the "blatant appeal to the jury's emotions and prejudices." The Court found that the testimony regarding the training camp was highly inflammatory and irrelevant, since there was no evidence tying the defendant against whom the evidence was offered to the camp.

GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law