David J. R. Frakt

Frakt is a 1987 graduate of the University High School, Irvine, California and a 1990 graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where he was named "Outstanding Senior" of his graduating class, and a 1994 honors graduate of Harvard Law School. ==Career==

Frakt is notable for his appointment to defend Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad, an alleged combatant facing charges for events that took place when he was a minor. This episode was later dramatized in the 2017 documentary film Law School Confidential. The school closed in 2021. ==Challenged Brigadier Thomas Hartmann's role==

On June 19, 2008 Frakt challenged the role of Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann in choosing his client Mohammed Jawad for trial. Deborah Colson, of Human Rights First, in a report in the Huffington Post, called the argument a "most powerful indictment of Bush administration policies." Michael Winship, of Bill Moyer's Journal, called the argument "an unusual and especially fine expression of American patriotism." Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Anthony Lewis described the argument as "a remarkable display of legal and moral courage." Frakt also argued, during his challenge of Hartmann's unlawful influence, that the Prosecution had failed to release important records to the Defense, and that this showed that the process through which Jawad was charged was rushed and without proper preparation. On August 14, 2008 Henley barred Hartmann from future participation in Mohammed Jawad's commission. According to Mike Melia, writing for the Associated Press, Henley ruled that Hartmann: ''"...compromised his objectivity in public statements aligning himself with prosecutors and defending the Pentagon's system for prosecuting alleged terrorists."'' However, Henley chose not to dismiss the charges against Jawad because of Hartmann's controversial conduct. He did rule that Frakt was authorized to submit arguments for dropping the charges against Jawad directly to Susan J. Crawford, the Convening Authority, as to whether charges against Jawad were justified. On September 12, Hartmann was removed from his position as Legal Advisor, and three days later Frakt submitted a plea to the Convening Authority to dismiss the charges, which included matters in mitigation and extenuation, legal arguments, and letters and a petition from concerned citizens. On September 23, Crawford rejected this appeal and reaffirmed her earlier decision to refer charges against Mohammad Jawad to trial. ==Comments on Frakt's efforts to have the charges against Jawad dismissed due to abusive conduct, including the "frequent flyer program"==

In June 2008, prosecutor Lt Col Darrel Vandeveld turned over detention records which had been previously withheld to the defense. These records demonstrated that Mohammed Jawad had been subjected to the controversial "frequent flyer program" a euphemistic term used by Guantanamo detention officials to describe a frequent cell movement program which resulted in sleep disruption and deprivation. These records were made available to Frakt shortly before Mohammed Jawad's first hearing before his Military Commission. Based on these records, Frakt sought to have the charges against Jawad dismissed on the grounds of torture and "outrageous government conduct." Frakt reported at Jawad's June 19, 2008 Commission hearing that those records showed that Jawad had been moved 112 times in a two-week period in May 2004. Following previous inquiries into abusive treatment of detainees, this technique had reportedly been ordered discontinued two months prior to its use on Jawad by the then Commanding Officer of JTF-Guantanamo, Brig Gen Jay Hood. On July 11, 2008, in another filing submitted to the Military Commission Frakt reported that the Prosecution had withheld evidence of the medical effects on his client of the two weeks of sleep deprivation. Frakt reported that Jawad's medical records, which had only recently been made available to him, contradicted the Prosecution's claims that Jawad had suffered "no ill effects" from the sleep deprivation. Frakt reported that the medical records showed that Jawad had lost ten percent of his body weight during his sleep deprivation, and that he had told doctors he had been urinating blood. On August 7, 2008 an article in The Washington Post reported that newly published documents showed that the prohibited sleep deprivation technique had been in wider use than had previously been known. The Washington Post report quoted Frakt's response to the news of this violation: : Additional hearings were held on August 13–14 and September 26–27, 2008. At the August 13–14 hearing, an intelligence officer formerly stationed at Guantanamo testified that the frequent flyer program was "standard operating procedure" and was used on dozens of detainees until at least April 2005. On September 24, Col. Henley ruled that the frequent flyer program was cruel, abusive and inhumane treatment, and recommended those responsible be punished. However, he declined to dismiss the charges against Jawad, ruling that other lesser remedies were adequate to address the abuse. The next hearing is scheduled for December. ==Comments on Lt Col Darrel Vandeveld's resignation==

On September 9, 2008, former lead prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld, an Army Reserve JAG, requested to be reassigned to other duties rather than continue to serve as prosecutor on the Jawad case. On September 24, 2008 Frakt commented on Lt Col Darrel Vandeveld's recent resignation, He said Vandeveld, whose resignation document has not yet been released: "could no longer continue to serve ethically as a prosecutor." According to The New York Times, Frakt said Vandeveld had been "troubled" by the orders he had been given. Frakt told The New York Times that Vandeveld had recommended a plea bargain and early release for Jawad, and had been overruled. Vandeveld later testified in a hearing on September 27, 2008 at Guantanamo that exculpatory evidence had been withheld from the Jawad defense, and that he had resigned because of concerns about the discovery process and his inability to determine whether all relevant discovery had been disclosed to the defense due to "systemic problems" with discovery at the Office of Military Commissions. ==Mohammed Jawad's noncombatant status==

In July 2009 US District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled Mohammed Jawad was a noncombatant. On July 28, 2009 Frakt filed a motion in Mohammed's military commission following Huvelle's ruling. He argued that the military commissions were only authorized to try illegal enemy combatants, and since he was officially a noncombatant his military commission lacked jurisdiction. ==Efforts to support Mohammed Jawad's re-integration into Afghan society==

On September 21, 2009 historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, published a letter from Frakt that documented the role he and his colleagues had hoped to play in Mohammed Jawad's re-integration into Afghan society. Frakt had argued to Susan Crawford that while civilian Defense attorneys didn't traditionally play a role in the lives of their clients, after their trials, the tradition for military Defense counsel was the opposite. Further, he argued that, as a child captive the literature strongly recommended the released captive be in the company of trusted adults—and the only trusted adults in his life recently had been his Defense counsel. Frakt also described, at length, the significant role played by his colleagues on "Team Jawad", Commander Katharine Doxakis, Major Eric Montalvo USMCR, Captain Chris Kannady, USMC, civilian counsels Hina Shamsi, Jonathan Hafetz, Art Spitzer, military and civilian paralegals, a team of law students from Duke University, and a law student named Joe Pace, from Yale Law School. ==Publications==

Frakt is the author of dozens of law review articles, book chapters, essays and op-eds. CNN published an Op-ed by Frakt, on March 17, 2010. Frakt argued that those Guantanamo captives who were to be tried, should be tried in a regular court of law, not the irregular military commissions. He congratulated Attorney General Eric Holder for his plans to try the most senior suspects in civilian court. == References ==