St. Petersburg Times
Oct. 3, 2005
Letter to the editor
Judge appears biased
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Something is amiss in the trial of Dr. Sami Al-Arian and his co-
defendants. If I understand the Constitution correctly, a federal
judge’s job is to guarantee a defendant’s right to a fair trial.

To many observers of this trial, Judge James Moody’s decisions have
been biased in favor of the prosecution and against the defense.
First he insisted that the trial be held in Tampa, despite a 10-
year, negative media campaign against Dr. Al-Arian. Then he seated
jurors who were clearly biased against Muslims, Arabs and
Palestinians. Although he stated at the beginning of the trial that
the prosecution must show that the defendants supported militant
actions of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, he has allowed the
prosecution to depict graphic bomb scenes and to display the sob
stories of the family members of Israeli victims of suicide bombers,
without the prosecution having established any connection between
the defendants and these bombings. But he has prohibited the defense
from telling the Palestinian story or showing scenes of the death
and destruction rained on Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces.

More recently, he failed to dismiss a juror or call for a mistrial
after a juror inappropriately voiced his opinion against the
defendants to other jurors. The judge also permitted the prosecution
to enter PIJ Web site information about bombings into evidence,
while the prosecution still has not proven any connection to the
defendants.

Is Judge Moody bending over backward to help the prosecution out of
personal bias, professional disorientation, or plain pity for a
prosecution that has spent so much time and money defending Israeli
interests in a case that has not yet been proven? Whatever the
reason is, he is not serving justice or upholding the Constitution.

— Pilar Saad, Tampa