Tuesday, November 09, 2010
USS Nicholas
Five Somali men who mistook a U.S. warship for a merchant vessel on April 1 will go on trial this week in the first case of piracy the government has tried since the Civil War.
The defendants are accused of firing assault rifles in April at the USS Nicholas, a guided missile frigate that was patrolling for pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The vessel pursued and captured the men after they attempted to flee in a small skiff.
If convicted of committing piracy, the Somalis face life in prison. Their attorney insists the U.S. government is overreaching in its prosecution because the men did not board the American ship.
The last piracy trial in the United States, held in 1861, involved 13 Confederate sailors who were raiding Union vessels. The sailors claimed that they were not pirates because they represented a sovereign nation…the Confederacy, and the case ended in a hung jury.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Somali Men Accused of Shooting at USS Nicholas Set To Go on Trial This Week (by Steve Szkotak, Washington Post)
The Last American Pirate Trial? (by Eagle1, U.S. Naval Institute)
Full Report of the Trial of William Smith for Piracy (by D. F. Murphy)
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