Richard W. Roberts

Richard W. Roberts is a US District Court judge in Washington DC.cite news
url=http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/roberts-bio.html
title=Judge Richard W. Roberts
publisher=United States Department of Justice
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=] cite news
url=http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/Pre_96/May95/247.txt.html
title=Richard W. Roberts named Criminal Section Chief in Civil RIghts Division
publisher=United States Department of Justice
date=May 1 1995
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=] cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/washington/28intel.html?em&ex=1206849600&en=039d06bc09e6e300&ei=5087%0A
title=Tapes’ Destruction Hovers Over Detainee Cases
publisher=New York Times
author=Mark Mazzetti, Scott Shane
date=March 28, 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=One of the court orders, issued in July 2005 by Judge Richard W. Roberts of the Federal District Court in Washington, required the preservation of all evidence related to Hani Abdullah, the Yemeni prisoner at Guantánamo, who is accused of attending a Qaeda training camp in 2001 and other offenses. Judge Roberts said in a January order that Mr. Abdullah’s lawyers had made a plausible case that Abu Zubaydah would have been asked about their client in interrogations.] cite news
url=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/28/destroyed_tapes_come_back_to_vex_cia/9157/
title=Destroyed tapes come back to vex CIA
publisher=United Press International
date=March 28, 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=In a suit brought by Hani Abdullah, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a federal judge has raised the possibility that the U.S. spy agency violated a court order to preserve all evidence relevant to the prisoner by destroying the tapes, The New York Times reported Friday.] cite news
url=http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_8077436?source=rss
title=Judge seeking details on CIA tapes
publisher=Contra Costa Times
author=Matt Apuzzo
date=25 January 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=Several judges are considering wading into the dispute over the videos, but U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts was the first to order the administration to provide a written report on the matter. The decision is a legal setback for the Bush administration, which has urged courts not to get involved.] cite news
url=http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/01/24/cia-tapes.html
title=U.S. judge orders White House to explain destruction of CIA tapes
publisher=CBC News
date=25 January 2008
accessdate=2008-03-29
quote=There's enough there that it's worth asking" whether other videos or documents were also destroyed, said attorney Charles Carpenter, who represents Guantanamo Bay detainee Hani Abdullah. "I don't know the answer to that question, but the government does know the answer and now they have to tell Judge Roberts.]

Educational career

Legal career

Roberts played a number of different roles in the US justice system prior to his appointment as a judge.

Covington & Burling

Roberts was an associate at the large, international law firm Covington & Burling.

Prosecutor

Roberts has served as an Assistant US Attorney and a Principal Assistant US Attorney.

Department of Justice

Roberts was the Chief of the Criminal Section in the Civil Rights Division of the
U.S. Department of Justice for three years.

Appointment to the bench

Roberts was appointed as a US District Court judge in 1998.

Roberts's role in the controversy over the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes

Roberts issued a court order prohibiting the CIA destroying evidence of its use of interrogations in July 2005.
CIA Director Michael V. Haydenacknowledged in December 2007 that the CIA had subsequently destroyed hundreds of hours of tapes of the use of "extended interrogation techniques", including the technique known as "waterboarding", where subjects's lungs are filled with water, so they experience the first stages of drowning.cite news
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101392.html
title=Detainee Evidence Probe Weighed: Judge Told Guantanamo Information May Have Been Destroyed
page=A02
publisher=Washington Post
author=Carol D. Leonnig
date=Saturday, December 22, 2007
accessdate=2008-03-29]

Many commentators have described the CIA's destruction of this evidence as a violation of Roberts's court order.On January 24 2008 Roberts demanded an explanation from the CIA for the tapes destruction.

On March 25 2008 Charles Carpenter, a lawyer for a Guantanamo captive from Yemen named Hani Abdullah brought suit against the CIA, before Roberts, arguing that the evidence the CIA destroyed would have helped prove his client's innocence.

References