Stephen Gill (lawyer)

Stephen Gill is an American lawyer, from Massachusetts, and an officer in the United States Naval Reserve.[1][2]

Early life

Gill grew up in the Boston area, attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts, and earned his law degree at Loyola University.

In January 2015, Lt. Commander Stephen Gill, JAG Corps, U.S. Navy, was mobilized to serve on the staff of the Convening Authority, of the Guantanamo military commission.[3] Convening Authority, retired U.S Marine Corps Major General Vaughn Ary tried to speed up the pace of the commissions by requiring the Presiding Officers to live on the base, full-time. Gill was part of the legal staff supporting the Guantanamo military commission. Within months of his arrival, Ary, and his legal staff, and several other civilian and military officers, but not Gill, were officially barred from working al-Nashiri's case, when it was judged Ary had been trying to exert "unlawful command influence" on the Presiding Officers juding certain cases, including that of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri.

Ary soon resigned from his position as Convening Authority, but his temporary replacement retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Lower Half Michael Quinn directed U.S. Army Colonel Edward Sheeran, and retired U.S. Army Colonel Mark Toole, Gill's superiors, to continue to work on al-Nashiri's case, in defiance of the order.[3] According to the Courthouse News Service Gill "refused to participate in Toole and Sheeran's ongoing defiance of the disqualification order, reporting them three different times in March and April 2015."

After his third complaint up the chain-of-command, Gill was accused of misconduct.[3] He was reassigned, to a different post, where he filed a fourth report of Sheeran and Toole's defiance of the court order. Within 24 hours of this fourth report Gill was demobilized.

Gill regarded his early and unscheduled demobilization as punitive, and a violation of the Military Whistleblower Protection Act.[4]

In October 2016, Gill was served with a deposition subpoena by military commissions Chief Prosecutor, U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark S. Martins. In accordance with Rule 703(e)(2)(G) of the Rules of Military Commissions, Gill filed a request for relief from the military commission's deposition subpoena in October 2016,[5] but after a secret, ex parte request made by Brigadier General Martins, military judge Vance Spath authorized United States Marshals to execute a writ of attachment to apprehend him and force him to continue his deposition testimony at a preliminary hearing of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri's Guantanamo military commission.[1][2]

Although Rule 703(e)(2)(G) of the Rules of Military Commissions purports to authorize Judge Spath’s actions, the rule isn’t an “Act of Congress,” and as such, Judge Spath's issuance of the writ of attachment against Gill was a clear violation of the “Non-Detention Act,” 18 U.S.C. § 4001(a), which provides that “No citizen shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an Act of Congress.”[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Britain Eakin (2016-10-18). "Witness Order at Guantanamo Is 1st of Its Kind". Guantanamo Bay Naval Base: Courthouse News Service. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  2. 1 2 Carol Rosenberg (2016-10-18). "Guantánamo judge has U.S. Marshals seize no-show war court witness". Guantanamo Bay Naval Base: Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2016-10-18. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  3. 1 2 3 Zack Huffman (2016-07-01). "Ex-Gitmo Lawyer Files for Protected Status". Guantanamo Bay Naval Base: Courthouse News Service. Retrieved 2016-10-19.
  4. ↑ Quinta Jurecic (2016-09-09). "This Week at the Military Commissions, 9/7 Session: The Return of the Prodigal Defendant". Lawfare. Retrieved 2016-10-19.
  5. ↑ http://www.mc.mil/Portals/0/pdfs/alNashiri2/Al%20Nashiri%20II%20(AE332QQ).pdf
  6. ↑ https://www.justsecurity.org/33707/guantanamo-meshugas-the-unlawful-detention-citizen-edition/
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