The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is US District Court judge John Coughenour in Washington State. Yesterday he handed down sentence in the case of Ahmed Ressam. Mr. Ressam was the man caught and convicted for plotting a millenium eve bombing at LAX airport. So why is Judge Coughenour a knucklehead? The judge gave Mr. Ressam 22 years. Try to blow up thousands of people and you only get 22 years?

Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Ressam sentenced to 22 years in prison
By Hal Bernton and Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporters

Public defender, Thomas Hillier, center, answers questions outside the Federal Courthouse after his client, Ahmed Ressam, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian who sought to explode a Millennium Eve bomb at Los Angeles International Airport was sentenced to 22 years in prison today in U.S. District Court.

Ressam, 38, showed no emotion during the hearing, but smiled briefly as it concluded.

Jo Ann Oliver, one of his defense attorneys , said she thought Ressam was relieved to have this over.

In the months before 9/11, Ressam emerged as an important U.S. government informant on the al Qaida network, but later ended his cooperation. In a last ditch effort at an April hearing, Judge John Coughenour failed to persuade Ressam to resume helping the U.S. Justice Department in two significant terrorism cases that prosecutors say may now have to be dismissed. Ressam rejected the judge's request.

Coughenour said this trial shows that the justice system in this country works.

"All of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial," Coughenour said. "There were no secret proceedings, no indefinite detention, no denial of counsel."

And no justice. Judge Coughenour for handing down a travesty of a sentence is today's knucklehead winner.