Underwear Bomber Returns To Court
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A week before jury selection, lawyers and a man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner are returning to court to discuss the process.
Detroit federal Judge Nancy Edmunds also must deal with some disputes about evidence Tuesday in the case against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
He's objecting to prosecutors' bid to show jurors a model of an explosive that was in his underwear on an Amsterdam-to-Detroit Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas 2009, saying it would harm his chance at a fair trial. The flight had 290 people aboard.
"It's very important, because the government has to prove that a bomb was brought on the plane, and that the bomb would have exploded on the plane and killed people. Because, if you just bring a little firecracker on the plane, you can't be charged with murder," said WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton.
Abdulmutallab has also urged to judge to exclude from evidence a martyrdom video and a video of Osama bin Laden hailing him as a hero.
Abdulmutallab faces life in prison if he's convicted of terrorism charges. He is representing himself with assistance from Detroit lawyer Anthony Chambers.
"It's going to be, really, kind of weird to see how a person with no legal training goes through and actually tries to try a case. That alone I think is going to put him at a severe disadvantage and I would imagine, as we've seen in other hearings, that he will speak and he will try to defend himself. But as we've seen before, he's not doing a very good job and I don't think he's going to get much better," said Langton.
Jury selection starts Oct. 4. Edmunds already has excused more than 30 people who completed a questionnaire this month. Reasons include family or work obligations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
