Buffalo News

Local defense attorney to defend 9/11 suspect at Guantanamo

September 2, 2011, 6:33 AM

James P. Harrington, one of Western New York's top criminal defense lawyers, Thursday confirmed that he has been designated one of the defense attorneys in the still-unscheduled Guantanamo Bay trial of the five alleged leaders of the 9/11 conspiracy.

In response to Buffalo News questions, Harrington confirmed that he will be trial attorney for Ramzi bin al- Shihb, who faces a Military Commission trial along with alleged 9/11 master planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and co-conspirators Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Walid Bin Attash.

Harrington, 66, said he was enlisted through a Florida lawyer friend who knew he was one of New York State's designated "capital counsels," meaning he was qualified to represent state suspects facing the death penalty until New York's law was declared unconstitutional.

Under the Military Commission system, a "death qualified" attorney had to be selected for each of the five 9/11 suspects because the U. S. secretary of defense could still opt to seek the death penalty for them at the Guantanamo Bay trial.

The five had been slated by U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder to stand trial in New York City, literally blocks from the Twin Towers destroyed by two planes a decade ago. However, political opposition forced him to reassign the case to the isolated Caribbean military prison.

Harrington, who in January was presented the New York State Bar Association's Charles F. Crimi Memorial Award for his outstanding work as a private defense lawyer, refused to discuss the taxpayer-supplied legal fees he will get for representing bin al- Shihb.

The first lawyer hired by Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan in 2009 in his spousal beheading case, Harrington earlier represented suspects accused of smuggling Irish aliens into the U. S. and one of the Lackawanna Six accused of being al-Qaida supporters.

The Rochester-born Harrington is a graduate of LeMoyne College and earned his law degree from the University at Buffalo Law School.

mgryta@buffnews.com