What does "Due Process" mean to you?

Question

Would you expect due process if detained overseas? Simple things like they have to tell you your charge and allow you to defend yourself.

Or, if they were just "really" sure you did something (which they won't tell you), you would be fine if they kept you locked up indefinitely.

Not that the US would ever do anything like that. (Gitmo) Just hypothetically speaking.

Congress never officially/legally declared "war" on Iraq. So the Military court actions are, in fact, illegal in regards to the term "enemy combatant".

Answer 1

Due Process Law and Legal Definition

The due process guarantees under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution Clause provide that the government shall not take a person's life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The due process clause of the 5th Amendment applies to the federal government and the 14th Amendment applies to the states. Due process involves both procedual and substantive aspects. Procedural due process requires fairness in the methods used to deprive a person of life, liberty or property, while substantive due process requires valid governmental justification for taking a person's life' liberty or property. Due process requirements apply to both criminal and civil law.

Due process generally requires fairness in government proceedings. A person is entitled to notice and opportunity to be heard at a hearing when they have life, liberty. or property at stake. Laws should be applied to persons equally, without discrimination on prohibited grounds, such as gender, nationality, handicap, or age. In criminal cases, fair procedures help to ensure that an accused person will not be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, which occurs when an innocent person is wrongly convicted. Due process requirements apply to such government proceedings as trials, parole hearings, and administrative hearings involving benefits, among others.

For example, when a person's home is in danger of tax foreclosure, the notice of delinquency is required to be sent within a certain time period and the person must be allowed to pay the full amount owed before it is sold to a third party. If there is an error in taxation or the person wishes to contest the appraisal, an appeals process is available.

Answer 2

Try looking into the conditions of Turkish Prisons. Or Spanish ones, for that matter. If one is a citizen, due process is arrest, booking, and the the process of being tried in court. For non-citizens, it's different, because of diplomatic, and various other reasons. Because the detainees don't get Habeus Corpus, does not mean YOU, if you are a citizen, don't get Habeus Corpus. There is a difference, there.

Now, let's not be childish, here. We know you are alluding to the enemy combatants being held. They, also, know why they are being held. For firing weapons at American soldiers, who overthrew a government sequestering terrorists, with intent to kill said soldiers. These men are being held under articles of the UCMJ, which, believe it or not, is NOT Constitutional Law.

And, they aren't even all Afghans, which means they are mercenaries, and as such are in a worse pickle, since they were not uniformed, paid soldiers of Afghanistan. Some detainees, admittedly, are POW's from Iraq, but most of those have already been processed out of Guantanamo Bay's detention facility. So, going back to your question, having cleared that up, what is it you need?

Answer 3

Due Process means that the rule of law and associated processes are followed in dealing with a suspected criminal or other legal matters.

I served on a Jury recently. The judge posed this question to us: Do you believe Mr. Y is innocent, guilty, or you don't know? After letting us stew on it for a few seconds, her stern answer was: Innocent.

In the US we are assumed Innocent until PROVEN guilty. And the burde of proof rests on the government.

Every citizen and person who is IN the US is guaranteed due process of the law and assumed innocent until proven guilty. We have all too often taken the opposite approach.

Answer 4

If I violated that country's laws I would expect Their due process if they have any. If I violated international law, and I was a member of a country's armed forces that was taken prisoner, I would expect due process under the Geneva Convention, if I was a captured terrorist acting under disguise I would expect no quarter but I sure would whine about it like the GIT MO thugs. Those I would hold to a military court, sentence them, take them out back and blow them away!

Answer 5

Depends on the country, but odds are that I would not receive the same handling I would if detained in the US for the same offense. The concepts associated with Contsitutional protections just don't exist in more than a fraction of other countries.

As for detaining those whose international legal status is indeterminate (i.e. guests of Gitmo), would you have had them executed on the battlefield?

Answer 6

It means that a driver has been running consistently up front week after week, but can't seal the deal. Jr. is due for a win. I'm not a fan of his, but he has been the face of HMS this year. Kenseth is due for a win, but he isn't running that consistent right now to get one just yet. Mark Martin is probably due for another win, in my book.

Answer 7

Due process is about our civilian courts, not our military courts. Armed combatants we catch on the battle field in the war on do not fall under the scope. You can't treat these ist as common criminals.

Answer 8

see theyre not citizens at gitmo, theyre arabs....americans only care about their own