Jeffrey Groharing

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Jeffrey Groharing is a lawyer and an officer in the United States Marine Corps.^[1]

On October 29, 1997 Groharing finished 1048 out of 9629 in a Marine Corps marathon, finishing in 3 hours and 25 minutes.^[2] ^[3] On Sunday April 4, 2004 Groharing finished a ten mile run in one hour and four minutes, finishing 30th .^[4]

Groharing graduated from Simpson College in 1993.^[5]

Groharing graduated from the University of Nebraska School of Law in 1996.^[6] Groharing joined the United States Marine Corps shortly thereafter/

Groharing married MaryAnne Sapio, Miss California 1999, on December 8, 2002.^[5] Sapio is currently a Washington lobbyist.^[7]^[8]

1 Guantanamo prosecution
- 1.1 November 8, 2007 hearing
- 1.2 December 2, 2007 hearing
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Guantanamo prosecution

Groharing is currently one of the officers appointed to prosecute. Guantanamo captives charged before the Guantanamo military commissions.^[9] According to a Wall Street Journal article Groharing found that intelligence analysts were failing to cooperate with him by providing him with the information he needed to convict Omar Khadr.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Groharing about the Khadr's prosecution:

"What's the alternative? To not hold him accountable? We are certainly not going to give him a pass for killing a U.S. service member and plotting to kill many more, The difference between us and al Qaeda is that when we had him on the battlefield, we didn't summarily execute him,"

[edit] November 8, 2007 hearing

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Please improve this article if you can. (January 2008)

Image said to be of Omar Khadr, leaked to CBS News after Peter Brownback declined to allow it to be shown during the November 8 hearing.

Colonel Peter Brownback, the Presiding Officer of Omar Khadr's military commission, was expected to make a ruling as to whether Khadr was an "illegal enemy combatant".^[10]^[11] Instead Brownback postponed that ruling because he learned that the Prosecution had failed to inform Khadr's Defense team of the existence of a potentially exculpatory witness.

Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler said Groharing informed the Defense of the existence of the potentially exculpatory witness less than two days before the hearing.^[12]^[13]

According to Jennifer Daskal, an attorney at Human Rights Watch^[14]:

“It is totally outrageous that the prosecution would try to push ahead with a hearing on whether or not Khadr was an unlawful enemy combatant, while all the time withholding from the defence potentially exculpatory information. Anyone who has ever gone to law school knows the fundamental legal and ethical rule: The prosecution cannot withhold exculpatory information from the defence.”

According to the Los Angeles Times^[10]:

“Despite the new information and the pending federal appeal on whether the commissions have primary jurisdiction in the case, the lead prosecutor, Marine Maj. Jeff Groharing, argued that he should be allowed to present evidence that Khadr was an unlawful enemy combatant.”

Groharing also protested the delay to Brownback because of the inconvenience of having brought witnesses to Guantanamo who would now not be called upon for their testimony.^[15]^[16] According to the Los Angeles Times^[10]:

"Kuebler said of Groharing's argument, adding that the prosecutor was 'practically pounding on the table.'"

One of the pieces of evidence Groharing had protested not being allowed to present during the November 8, 2007 hearing was a videotape.^[17]^[18]^[19] The videotape was said to show Omar Khadr planting mines. The next broadcast of the CBS News show 60 Minutes showed extensive clips from this video. Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Department of Defense spokesman, claimed that the videotape had not been leaked by anyone within the Prosecution, or the Office of Military Commission.