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"Enemy of the State," coauthored by Mike Newton, released by St. Martin's Press
Release Date: Sep 24, 2008
At 12:21 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2005, Saddam Hussein was led into the courtroom of the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad for one of the most important and messiest trials in history. The trial represented a bold gambit as Iraqi legal professionals sought to restore the soul of their nation.
Beginning with Saddam's capture in December 2003, two American law professors, Vanderbilt's Michael A. Newton and Case Western Reserve's Michael P. Scharf, led an elite team of experts who prepared the judges and prosecutors for "the Mother of all Trials." Professor Newton was with Iraqi judges when they learned of the capture and had worked to negotiate the Tribunal with the leaders of the transitional government. He later returned to Baghdad four times to advise judges and lawyers on a myriad of legal issues as they used their newly enacted domestic statute to enforce the criminal norms drawn from international law.
The trial of toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein required Professor Newton, former senior legal advisor to the U.S. Ambassador on War Crimes, and Professor Scharf, a former State Department official who helped create the Yugoslavia Tribunal in 1993, to confront such issues as whether the death penalty should apply, how to run a fair trial when political and military passions ran so high, and which of Saddam's many crimes should be prosecuted. Iraqi judges described the televised trial as the "doorway to the Arab world" for the body of law proscribing crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes.
Enemy of the State, Newton and Sharf's new book (Saint Martin's Press, 2008), chronicles Saddam Hussein's trial in vivid detail from start to finish. A work of non-fiction written like a novel, the book appeals to attorneys as well as to a broader audience of readers interested in current events and history. "The inside story of the trial and the politics surrounding it was so compelling that Michael [Scharf] and I realized we had a professional and patriotic duty to write an eyewitness history dispelling many misconceptions arising from the process," Newton says. "All Iraqis suffered during the regime, and each witness who testified literally represented thousands of similarly situated citizens. Saddam Hussein's trial made an important regional statement and presents lessons directly applicable to the pending trials against the president of Sudan and Radovan Karadzic. The era of accountability is underway, and the Iraqis succeeded in enforcing universally recognized law against the dictator whose word and will dominated their nation."
Professor Newton was actually in Baghdad in December 2003 when the Tribunal was announced and Saddam Hussein captured. In the following months, Scharf and Newton helped write the rules of the Tribunal, conducted a mock trial in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and provided legal analysis on dozens of issues. Newton then returned to Baghdad as Legal Advisor to the Iraqi jurists several times during the trial and appeal. "It was a long, exhausting road," he recalls. "But what we were doing - both in helping to establish the rule of law in Iraq and in holding Saddam Hussein responsible for his crimes against humanity and genocide - was essential to Iraq's ability to move on and build a democratic government. The Iraqis displayed admirable courage as they and their families made tremendous personal sacrifices to serve the ends of justice."
Enemy of the State is an excellent eyewitness account of one of the most important trials since the Nuremberg Trials," said Dean Edward L. Rubin. "It also achieves something rare for a book written by two distinguished legal scholars: It's actually a page-turner."
The book will be discussed and its release celebrated with a discussion panel on Monday, Sept. 29, at 3:30 p.m. in Flynn Auditorium at Vanderbilt Law School. The discussion is free and open to the public.
