Community Corner

Ex-Gitmo Chief Prosecutor to Lead Talk on Torture, Morality

Retired Col. Morris Davis will lead a panel discussion at a Derwood church Wednesday.

A man who oversaw prosecutions at the U.S. military’s controversial detainment center in Cuba will lead a discussion on torture as a moral issue Wednesday at St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church in Derwood.

Col. Morris Davis (Ret.) served as chief prosecutor at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, where former and current prisoners have complained of torture.

Davis resigned in 2007 in protest of plans to allow testimony gained through waterboarding in the case of detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi, several news outlets reported.

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Now, Davis is pressing the Obama administration to close the facility.

“We used to be the land of the free and the home of the brave; we’ve been the constrained and the cowardly,” Davis told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in March.

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Wednesday’s talk is being coordinated by three religious organizations: the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Pax Christi of St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, and Interfaith Action for Human Rights.

Stephen Colecchi, the director of the Office of International Justice and Peace for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a panelist.

The Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of NRCAT, will moderate the discussion.

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If you go …

What:  “Torture is a Moral Issue—Our Issue,” a panel discussion led by Col. Morris Davis (Ret.), former Chief Prosecutor for the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay.

  • Dr. Stephen Colecchi, Director, Office of International Justice and Peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; panelist.
  • The Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture; moderator.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, 6701 Muncaster Mill Road, in Derwood.


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