In our final episode, Gina visits with Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nick Slatten and Paul Slough three months after President Donald J. Trump issued unconditional pardons to free them from prison. They talk about hearing the news that they were coming home to their families for Christmas, and about their hopes and dreams.
The men of Raven 23 resist mounting prosecutorial pressure to plead guilty, and must finally face trial -- a legal odyssey that dragged for seven more years and encompassed three trials. In this episode, Gina chronicles the repeated violations of the men’s civil rights at the hands of prosecutors who are aided by a complicit judge.
Gina examines the role played by the national press in the prosecution of Raven 23.
Although he is mere months from taking senior status, Judge Royce Lamberth inexplicably seizes the Raven 23 case, minutes after it is randomly assigned to another judge. This move is consistent with Lamberth’s checkered legal and judicial career.
FOR MORE:
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW REVIEW
Royce Lamberth's Rein of Terror
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40712173
WASHINGTON POST
At US Urging, Court Throws Lamberth off Indian Case
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/07/12/at-us-urging-court-throws-lamberth-off-indian-case/72b9f5cd-e668-4d9f-98f9-10d83e5052b7/
JUDICIAL PROFILE
Royce Lamberth
https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/LamberthMay2008-pdf-3.pdf
Just two days after Judge Ricardo Urbina threw out the government’s case against Raven 23, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her legal advisors were scheming on ways to revive it.
The news of the dismissal reverberated across Iraq, with religious and political leaders demanding that the US Justice Department bring new charges against Dustin Heard, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Nick Slatten.
State Department cables from the time show that the Iraqi government was threatening to withdraw from the Status of Forces Agreement and lucrative oil contracts.
Obama sent Vice President Joseph Biden to Iraq to assure the Iraqi people publicly that they would have “justice” in the Raven 23 case.
FOR MORE:
WIKILEAKS
State Department diplomatic cables: "Fallout over Blackwater Continues"
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10BAGHDAD63_a.html
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Biden says "U.S. to Appeal Blackwater Dismissal"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amGSJuwszC8
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