Recently an ultra-conservative niece commented on her Facebook status “How can OUR president even THINK of having the 9/11 terrorists tried on OUR soil in NYC? Maybe we should ask Obama if he wants to Live in NY while the trial is going on? How does he look at himself in the mirror at night?” 

This, of course, brought on the comments, on both sides of the fence, but the comments that have been playing in my head were from the first two commenters. The first commenter asked question “Where else would you have them tried?”, a fair question and the second scoffed at the issue altogether saying “Ha ha ha ha. LMAO at you two. This one's not even worth debating. Who cares where the trial is? I was thinking New York was actually kind of appropriate. Give people there some satisfacation that justice prevails and all.”

My nieces’ stance is “Not in america! Especially not amoung the families of the victims of 9 11 so the misery is spread out 4 another 8 years,. We should just hang them and dump them in the ocean without a trial at all!”

I can certainly understand her sentiment but what she does not seem to be thinking about and it would seem her commenters are not either is that where a trial takes place is indeed important.  That and the fact that no matter the charges and the guilt or innocence of the accused there must always be a respect for the due process of justice.  Or there will be no justice, now or in the future.  If we throw it all out the window for this particular trial and simply prosecute without a trial, without due process, we then open the door for anarchy.

My niece also makes the comment that “These dogs do not deserve the same rights as citizens of the US, THEY are not!”  True enough.  They do not deserve the same rights as US citizens, but this is not about individual rights.  It’s about preserving justice and liberty for all humankind.  No matter how heinous a crime may be and no matter how clear cut an accuseds guilt may be, if you don’t follow the laws of justice once it only becomes harder and harder to maintain order and justice down the road. 

Where a trial is held becomes as important as any other element of the judicial process. The thought of these trials being overthrown down the road for some minor issue that in anyway can be attributed to the fact they were held on American soil is definitely not a pleasant thought.  Cases get overturned for minor things quite often.  This is the basis on which I agree with her that perhaps America is not the right place for the trials.  What place is best suited is a very tough decision indeed as unfair bias can certainly go both ways and I have no answers or suggestions for that.

What I do know is that should I or anyone I care about ever be accused of any crime, guilty or innocent, here in America or in any other country, is that I want to have all aspects of a fair and just trial to be in place and not thrown away because we let our emotions rule the day.