Eleventh Circuit talks about law of torture

Though not technically a sentencing case, a helpful reader suggested that other readers of this blog might be interested in today’s immigration ruling from the Eleventh Circuit in Jean Pierre v. US AG, No. No. 06-13359 (11th Cir. Sept. 19, 2007) (available here). Here is how the opinion begins:

More than fifty years ago, Justice Frankfurter wrote that, when it comes to torture, “there comes a point where this Court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men.” Watts v. Indiana, 338 U.S. 49, 52 (1949). Today, we decide not whether our humanity should inform our understanding of torture, but whether, in the context of this claim, Congress has eliminated the jurisdiction of the federal courts to address this issue in the first place. We conclude that the question at the heart of this appeal — whether a particular course of conduct amounts to torture under the Convention Against Torture1 and the accompanying legislation — is a legal one, and accordingly falls squarely within our limited jurisdiction under the REAL ID Act of 2005.

Petitioner Jean Herold Jean Pierre (“Jean Pierre”), a gravely ill AIDS patient, claims that he will be tortured in jail if he is removed to Haiti as a criminal alien. H e has consistently said, without any dispute, that he will be beaten with metal rods, confined for weeks in a tiny crawl space, and subjected to the Haitian practice of “kalot marassa” (severe boxing of the ears). This conduct, he argues, is torture.  Because the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to consider the heart of these claims, we grant his petition for review, vacate the BIA’s decision, and remand for further proceedings.