Botched Blackwater Prosecution Transcripts Nearing Publication

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Barring a Justice Dept. plea to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for a stay of U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina's Jan. 7 order, transcripts and exhibits from the three-week hearing concerning the prosecution of five former Blackwater Worldwide security guards that Judge Urbina dismissed last month (US v. Paul A Slough et al, Misc. Action No. 10-0005) will soon  be available for review in your friendly local newspaper.

Judge Urbina set February 2 as the release date of  redacted versions of the parties' post-hearing memoranda and briefs, along with exhibits and hundreds of pages of transcripts of the testimony of 25 witnesses at the previously sealed hearing. The hearing was sealed to protect the defendants' rights as it relied heavily on grand jury minutes and immune statements from the security guards. Judge Urbina dismissed the criminal charges against the defendants in December because of the prosecution's misuse of immunized statements from the guards taken during a Sept. 2007 probe of a shooting death  that occurred in Nisour Square, Iraq.

The Washington Post submitted a request for access to the court materials on Jan. 4, and the Associated Press followed suit the next day.  Prosecutors and defense counsel have a noon deadline today to submit redacted versions of their pretrial and postrial papers.