British citizen Kris Maharaj has spent 38 years in prison for a crime committed by a Colombian drug cartel. Now in his 80s he doesn’t have much time left.Kris was wrongfully convicted in 1987 of a double murder that took place in Miami on October 16, 1986. I have represented him since 1993. After 15 years on death row, Kris was re-sentenced to life imprisonment: another kind of death sentence, as he is not eligible for parole until he is 101. After failing to get him relief in the courts, I wrote a book about his case. Kris remains in the Florida state prison system – in poor health, desperate to reunite with his loyal wife Marita and return home to the UK.
Dr Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three who is currently held in a Texas Federal Prison, enduring an 86 year sentence for attempted murder of a US soldier, an incident in which she was the only person actually shot. The circumstances of Aafia’s arrest and extradition are shrouded in secrecy, the evidence presented at trial was riddled with inconsistencies, and much of it was extorted by torture. I am conducting investigation to challenge her treatment as the only woman subject to the CIA rendition-to-torture program. To support work her case please donate here.
The Guantánamo Bay Detention Center opened in January 2002, in response to the events of 9/11. At one time there were 780 men being held there. I have represented 87 of these men and was one of the first lawyers to bring a challenge the prison in the Rasul v Bush case in February 2002, seeking to restore the writ of habeas corpus to the men held there. I visited the prison many times, and memorialised what I was allowed to reveal about what I saw and heard in a book. Most of the men have now been released, but I still represent several current and former prisoners, all of whom were cleared for release as posing no threat. These include Ahmed Rabbani, Abdul Malik, Asadullah Haroon, Saifullah Paracha and Khalid Quassim.
The Justice League apprentices (pictured) and I are providing investigation and legal support on the retrial of Clinton Lee Young (second from left) in Texas. In January 2022, after almost 20 years on death row in Texas, Clinton Young was released on bail pending a new trial. His conviction was vacated after it was discovered that one of the prosecutors at his original trial was secretly being paid to work as a clerk for the trial judge, writing his rulings denying relief. Clinton was convicted of double murder in 2003, and was sentenced to death, but has maintained his innocence throughout.
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