On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, at 4:00 p.m., WSU Professor David J. Frakt  appeared at New York University School of Law, where he gave a presentation entitled "Defending Detainees, the Constitution and the Rule of Law at Guantánamo: The Incredible Case of Mohammed Jawad."

From April 2008 to August 2009, Professor Frakt, who is also a Lieutenant Colonel is the U.S. Air Force JAG Corps Reserve, was on a military leave of absence from WSU while serving as lead defense counsel at the Office of Military Commissions-Defense, representing two Guantanamo detainees facing trial by military commission for alleged war crimes and terrorism-related offenses.

Professor Frakt is one of only two lead counsel to represent a detainee in a military commission trial. In July 2009, he became the first defense counsel to win the dismissal of military commission charges that had been referred to trial and to win the release, through habeas corpus, of a detainee that faced war crimes charges. Professor Frakt's representation of Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan juvenile, earned him widespread acclaim as a champion of human rights and the rule of law.

In addition to being a sought after speaker on the national law school lecture circuit, Professor Frakt has written extensively about military commissions and other issues related to Guantanamo detainees. He has also been quoted in over 125 newspaper, magazine and on-line articles and blogs. Professor Frakt recently testified before Congress about proposed reforms to the military commission. Professor Frakt currently serves as the Director of Western State University's Criminal Law Practice Center, in addition to teaching courses in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure.

Professor Frakt's most recent law review articles appeared in the Harvard Human Rights Journal and the Washburn Law Journal. The articles, Closing Argument at Guantanamo: The Torture of Mohammad Jawad 22 Harvard Human Rights Journal 1 (2009), and The Difficulty of Defending Detainees, 48 Washburn Law Journal 381 (2009) are available here:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss22-1/1-24.pdf

http://www.washburnlaw.edu/wlj/48-2/articles/frakt-david.pdf