Ricardo M. Urbina

Ricardo M. Urbina (born 1946 in New York City)^[1] is a United States District Court Judge in Washington, DC.^[2]

Education

B.A.	1967	Georgetown University
Law	1970	Georgetown University Law Center

Legal career

1970-1972	D.C. Public Defender Service
1974-1981	Faculty, Howard University Law School
1981	Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
1994	Appointed to the United States District Court by President Bill Clinton

Notable cases

Guantanamo Bay detainees

Urbina presided over a number of habeas corpus petitions submitted on behalf of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.^[3] In October 2008, he ordered the release of a small group of Uighur detainees from Guantanamo into the United States because they are no longer regarded as enemy combatants.^[4]

Saeed Hatim v. Barack Obama

On December 16, 2009 Urbina ordered Guantanamo captive "Saeed Hatim" to be released.^[5] According to Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald Urbina's release order was sealed, and it "brought the so-called habeas corpus scorecard to 32 losses and nine victories by the Pentagon of detainee challenges from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba." Dean Boyd, a Department of Justice spokesman, told Rosenberg the Government was reviewing its options in how to react to the ruling.

Blackwater Baghdad shootings prosecution

On December 31, 2009--a month before five Blackwater Worldwide security guards implicated in the September, 2007, Nisour Square, Baghdad, shooting incident were to go on trial--Urbina dismissed the case. Urbina said that the prosecutors improperly relied upon statements the guards gave to State Department investigators. The guards were required to make the statements if they wanted to keep their jobs--thus making them inadmissible under the Fifth Amendment. The immunity issue was a problem that lawyers for the government anticipated as long as a year ago when they briefed Congress on the matter. Judge Urbina dismissed the indictment of the five men who pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter and firearms violations: Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, Donald Ball and Nicholas Slatten.^[6]

Dozens of Iraqis, including the estates of some of the victims allegedly killed by Blackwater employees, filed a separate lawsuit last year alleging that Blackwater employees engaged in indiscriminate killings and beatings. The civil case is still before a Virginia court. Blackwater contractors had been hired to guard US diplomats in Iraq. The guards said insurgents ambushed them in a traffic circle. Prosecutors said the men unleashed an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenades. The shooting led to the unraveling of the North Carolina-based company, which since has replaced its management and changed its name to Xe Services. ^[7]

References

1. ^
   • Ricardo M. Urbina at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
2. ^ "Ricardo M. Urbina". US District Court. http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/urbina-bio.html. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
3. ^ "Respondents' response to Court's August 7, 2006 order". United States Department of Defense. August 15, 2006. http://www.pegc.us/archive/OK_v_Bush/govt_resp_to_GK_20060815.pdf. Retrieved 2008-06-23. 
4. ^ "Judge: Let Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo into US". Yahoo!. October 7, 2008. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/guantanamo_chinese_detainee. Retrieved 2008-10-07. 
5. ^ Carol Rosenberg (2009-12-16). "Federal judge orders 32nd detainee freed from Guantánamo". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2009-12-24. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.miamiherald.com%2Fnews%2Famericas%2Fguantanamo%2Fstory%2F1385320.html&date=2009-12-24. 
6. ^ "Judge Drops Charges From Blackwater Deaths in Iraq" by Liz Robbins, The New York Times, December 31, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
7. ^ "US security firm mired in Iraq controversy changes its name" The Guardian, Friday 13 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-13.