Clive Stafford Smith
Encyclopedia
Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE
(born 9 July 1959) is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America.
In August 2004 he returned from the US to live in the United Kingdom. He is now the Legal Director of the UK branch of the human rights not-for-profit Reprieve. In 2005 he received the Gandhi International Peace Award.
and educated at Radley College
, he declined a place at the University of Cambridge
to study as a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
, where he studied journalism before enrolling in Columbia University
's Law School.Profile at Reprieve He is admitted to practice in the state of Louisiana
and in Washington, D.C.
Stafford Smith worked for the Southern Prisoners' Defense Committee, based in Atlanta, now known as the Southern Center for Human Rights
, and on other campaigns to help convicted defendants sentenced to capital punishment.He first came to British public attention when he appeared in Fourteen Days in May
, a 1987 BBC
documentary showing the last fortnight in the life of Edward Earl Johnson
before he went to the gas chamber in Mississippi State Penitentiary
. Stafford Smith had acted as Johnson's attorney and was seen desperately trying to halt the execution of the death sentence. In a follow-up documentary Stafford Smith conducted his own investigation of the murder for which Johnson was executed.
In 1993, he helped set up a new justice center, formerly known as the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, but now known as the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, for prisoner advocacy, in New Orleans. In 2002, he became a founding Board Member of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center (G.R.A.C.E.), a non-profit law office in Houston, Texas
designed to bring the methods developed by Stafford Smith at LCAC to the "capital of capital punishment". He was awarded an OBE for his contributions to the law and human rights.
and has assisted in filing lawsuits on behalf of 128 detainees. His clients include Shaker Aamer
, Jamil al Banna, Sami Al Hajj, Sami Al Laithi, Abdul Salam Gaithan Mureef Al Shehry
, Moazzam Begg
, Omar Deghayes
, Jamal Kiyemba, Benyam Mohammed
and Hisham Sliti
. In a BBC interview, when asked why he was representing detainees, he answered that "liberty is eroded at the margins".
It was during this period, in December 2004, that Stafford Smith prepared a 50-page brief for the defense of Saddam Hussein arguing that Saddam should be tried in the U.S. under U.S. criminal law.
On 29 August 2005 Stafford Smith addressed attendees at the Greenbelt festival
, a major UK Christian festival, telling them about the second hunger strike the Guantanamo detainees were undertaking. Stafford Smith warned that prisoners were likely to die soon. Due to restrictions imposed by the United States Department of Defense
, lawyers' notes must be filed with an intelligence clearing house in Virginia, before release. Conversations with clients are considered classified, and cannot be discussed until they have been cleared. Thus, Smith had to wait until August 27, 2005 to publicly reveal that the hunger strikes had been re-initiated on 5 August 2005. Two of his clients, Binyam "Benjamin" Mohammed and Hisham Sliti
, participated in the hunger strikes. In an interview broadcast on the BBC
television evening news on 9 September 2005, Stafford Smith stated that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was to protest the continuing imprisonment of children in Guantanamo Bay
.
Stafford Smith contributed to The Guardian
on the U.S. Supreme Court
's 29 June 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
.
Stafford Smith speculated that George W. Bush
should have been secretly relieved that the more conservative members of the Supreme Court, who supported the administration's appeal against the lower court's ruling, were in the minority: "In the end, I suspect there was a collective sigh of relief from the White House that the lunatic fringe did not prevail. The Bush administration has finally recognized that it must close Guantánamo but — for all that Bush bangs on about the importance of personal responsibility — it wanted someone else to take the blame." Stafford Smith wrote a book about his experiences at Guantanamo, Bad Men (2007), shortlisted for the 2008 Orwell Prize
for political writing.
Interviewed by Jon Snow
of Channel 4 News
on 26 March 2009, Stafford Smith said he would be astounded if 10 Downing Street
did not know that his client, former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, was being tortured. He added: "I would go one step further: the torture decisions were being made in the White House
, by the National Security Council
, Dick Cheney
and Condoleezza Rice
". He asserted that although the British had not carried out the actual torture they were complicit in it. Stafford Smith concluded that, in seeking to keep the torture allegations secret, the US authorities were "confusing national security with national embarrassment".
In July 2010, Stafford Smith accused former Foreign Secretary David Miliband
of "fighting tooth and nail" to prevent the release of vital documents during the Binyam Mohamed case.
As of July 2011, Stafford Smith has secured the release of 65 prisoners from Guantánamo and at the time acts for 15 more.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 9 July 1959) is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America.
In August 2004 he returned from the US to live in the United Kingdom. He is now the Legal Director of the UK branch of the human rights not-for-profit Reprieve. In 2005 he received the Gandhi International Peace Award.
Background
Born in CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
and educated at Radley College
Radley College
Radley College , founded in 1847, is a British independent school for boys on the edge of the English village of Radley, near to the market town of Abingdon in Oxfordshire, and has become a well-established boarding school...
, he declined a place at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
to study as a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, where he studied journalism before enrolling in Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's Law School.Profile at Reprieve He is admitted to practice in the state of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Stafford Smith worked for the Southern Prisoners' Defense Committee, based in Atlanta, now known as the Southern Center for Human Rights
Southern Center for Human Rights
The Southern Center for Human Rights is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to enforcing the civil and human rights of people in the criminal justice system in the South...
, and on other campaigns to help convicted defendants sentenced to capital punishment.He first came to British public attention when he appeared in Fourteen Days in May
Fourteen Days in May
Fourteen Days in May is a documentary directed by Paul Hamann and originally shown on television by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1987. The program recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder and imprisoned in the...
, a 1987 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentary showing the last fortnight in the life of Edward Earl Johnson
Edward Earl Johnson
Edward Earl Johnson was a man convicted and executed by the U.S. state of Mississippi for the murder of a policeman, J.T. Trest and the sexual assault of a 69-year-old woman, Sally Franklin...
before he went to the gas chamber in Mississippi State Penitentiary
Mississippi State Penitentiary
Mississippi State Penitentiary , also known as Parchman Farm, is the oldest prison and the only maximum security prison for men in the state of Mississippi, USA....
. Stafford Smith had acted as Johnson's attorney and was seen desperately trying to halt the execution of the death sentence. In a follow-up documentary Stafford Smith conducted his own investigation of the murder for which Johnson was executed.
In 1993, he helped set up a new justice center, formerly known as the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, but now known as the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, for prisoner advocacy, in New Orleans. In 2002, he became a founding Board Member of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center (G.R.A.C.E.), a non-profit law office in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
designed to bring the methods developed by Stafford Smith at LCAC to the "capital of capital punishment". He was awarded an OBE for his contributions to the law and human rights.
Guantánamo detainees
Since returning to the UK, he has worked as the legal director of Reprieve, a British charity that is opposed to the death penalty.During his career he has lost six death penalty cases. From 2002 Stafford Smith has volunteered his services to security detainees at Guantanamo BayGuantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
and has assisted in filing lawsuits on behalf of 128 detainees. His clients include Shaker Aamer
Shaker Aamer
Shaker Aamer is a Saudi Arabian citizen and the last British resident currently held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was arrested in Afghanistan in January 2002 and as of today, Aamer has been held at Guantánamo for...
, Jamil al Banna, Sami Al Hajj, Sami Al Laithi, Abdul Salam Gaithan Mureef Al Shehry
Abdul Salam Gaithan Mureef Al Shehry
Abdul Salam Gaithan Mureef Al Shehry is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.The US Department of Defense reports that he was born on December 14, 1984, in...
, Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
, Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes is a Libyan citizen with residency status in the United Kingdom, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He currently lives in the United Kingdom....
, Jamal Kiyemba, Benyam Mohammed
Benyam Mohammed
Binyam Ahmed Mohamed is an Ethiopian national, who was detained in Guantanamo Bay prison between 2004 and 2009....
and Hisham Sliti
Hisham Sliti
Hisham Sliti, a Tunisian, is currently being held as an enemy combatant in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.The list of the names of all the Guantanamo detainees states that his date of birth was February 12, 1966, in Hamam Lif, TunisiaAs of Aug...
. In a BBC interview, when asked why he was representing detainees, he answered that "liberty is eroded at the margins".
It was during this period, in December 2004, that Stafford Smith prepared a 50-page brief for the defense of Saddam Hussein arguing that Saddam should be tried in the U.S. under U.S. criminal law.
On 29 August 2005 Stafford Smith addressed attendees at the Greenbelt festival
Greenbelt festival
Greenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown from a Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young Christians to its current more secular festival attended by around 20,000 - Christians and non-Christians.The festival...
, a major UK Christian festival, telling them about the second hunger strike the Guantanamo detainees were undertaking. Stafford Smith warned that prisoners were likely to die soon. Due to restrictions imposed by the United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
, lawyers' notes must be filed with an intelligence clearing house in Virginia, before release. Conversations with clients are considered classified, and cannot be discussed until they have been cleared. Thus, Smith had to wait until August 27, 2005 to publicly reveal that the hunger strikes had been re-initiated on 5 August 2005. Two of his clients, Binyam "Benjamin" Mohammed and Hisham Sliti
Hisham Sliti
Hisham Sliti, a Tunisian, is currently being held as an enemy combatant in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.The list of the names of all the Guantanamo detainees states that his date of birth was February 12, 1966, in Hamam Lif, TunisiaAs of Aug...
, participated in the hunger strikes. In an interview broadcast on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television evening news on 9 September 2005, Stafford Smith stated that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was to protest the continuing imprisonment of children in Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
.
Stafford Smith contributed to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
on the U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
's 29 June 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
.
Stafford Smith speculated that George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
should have been secretly relieved that the more conservative members of the Supreme Court, who supported the administration's appeal against the lower court's ruling, were in the minority: "In the end, I suspect there was a collective sigh of relief from the White House that the lunatic fringe did not prevail. The Bush administration has finally recognized that it must close Guantánamo but — for all that Bush bangs on about the importance of personal responsibility — it wanted someone else to take the blame." Stafford Smith wrote a book about his experiences at Guantanamo, Bad Men (2007), shortlisted for the 2008 Orwell Prize
Orwell Prize
The Orwell Prize used to be regarded as the pre-eminent British prize for political writing.Three prizes are awarded each year: one for a book, one for journalism and another for blogging...
for political writing.
Interviewed by Jon Snow
Jon Snow
Jon Snow is an English journalist and presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known for presenting Channel 4 News.He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.-Early life:...
of Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
on 26 March 2009, Stafford Smith said he would be astounded if 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....
did not know that his client, former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, was being tortured. He added: "I would go one step further: the torture decisions were being made in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, by the National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
, Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
and Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
". He asserted that although the British had not carried out the actual torture they were complicit in it. Stafford Smith concluded that, in seeking to keep the torture allegations secret, the US authorities were "confusing national security with national embarrassment".
In July 2010, Stafford Smith accused former Foreign Secretary David Miliband
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
of "fighting tooth and nail" to prevent the release of vital documents during the Binyam Mohamed case.
As of July 2011, Stafford Smith has secured the release of 65 prisoners from Guantánamo and at the time acts for 15 more.
Awards
- Awarded the OBEOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in the 2000 New Years' Honours list "for humanitarian services in the legal field". - Honorary Doctorate of Law by the University of WolverhamptonUniversity of WolverhamptonThe University of Wolverhampton is a British university located on four campuses across the West Midlands and Shropshire. The city campus is located in Wolverhampton city centre with a second campus at Compton Park, Wolverhampton; a third in Walsall and a fourth in Telford...
2001, for his work fighting the death penalty in America. - Lifetime Achievement Award from The Lawyer Magazine (2003)
- Benjamin Smith Award from the ACLU of Louisiana (2003)
- Soros Senior Fellow, Rowntree Visionary (2005)
- Gandhi International Peace Award 2005, for his work representing Guantanamo detainees and campaigning against extraordinary renditionExtraordinary renditionExtraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
. - Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award (2008)
- International Freedom of the Press Award (2009)
- International Bar Association's Human Rights Award (2010)
- Honorary Doctorate by Bournemouth UniversityBournemouth UniversityBournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...
(2011).
Publications
- Bad Men: Guantánamo Bay and the Secret Prisons (Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2007) Details his work for detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and criticizes Alan DershowitzAlan DershowitzAlan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
amongst others for their advocacy of torture. - The Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Fighting the Lawless World of Guantanamo Bay (Nation Books, 2007) ISBN 1568583745
- Welcome To Hell: Letters and Writings from Death Row by Helen Prejean, Clive Stafford Smith, and Jan Arriens (Northeastern; 2nd edition 2004) ISBN 1555536360
External links
- Reprieve UK - Stafford Smith is Legal Director
- Article from Sunday Times 16 April 2006 - Interview with Clive Stafford Smith. Accessed 2010-04-15
- Brief biographical summary, BBC website
- "Chris Kijne talks with Clive Stafford Smith". (Video: 55 mins) 14 December 2005. first minute Dutch all others English
- The Great Defender BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 11 March 2002 - Stranded, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 2 September 2005. Smith's account of the New Orleans' Justice Center - Do Non-Americans Have Human Rights?, an interview in Mother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
, February 23, 2005 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/06/13/newham_guantanamo_video_feature.shtmlClive Stafford Smith being interviewed by Newham Monitoring ProjectNewham Monitoring ProjectNewham Monitoring Project is a grassroots community-based anti-racist organisation in the London Borough of Newham, London, England with a remit to provide support work against racial discrimination and violence, police misconduct and around civil rights issues. It provides advice, support,...
about his book Bad Men], BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, June 11, 2007 - Guantanamo at Magnum In Motion. MP4MPEG-4 Part 14MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. It is most commonly used to store digital video and digital audio streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images...
Photo essayPhoto essayA photo-essay is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text...
by Paulo Pellegrin with audio by Stafford Smith. - "Clive Stafford Smith: US Holding 27,000 in Secret Overseas Prisons". Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
19 May 2008 mirror - Contributions to the New StatesmanNew StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....