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Venue change for Lindh trial rejected

Walker Lindh sits at the defense table Monday.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- A federal judge Monday rejected a defense motion for a change of venue in the trial of John Walker Lindh, the man dubbed the "Taliban American."

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III also rejected a defense motion contending that because Walker Lindh was a soldier with combat immunity the charges against him should be dropped.

Defense attorneys argued their client could not get a fair trial in a northern Virginia courtroom because it is only "nine miles away" from the Pentagon "where more people were killed than in Oklahoma City."

"You can't go through a day in America without 9/11 being mentioned," defense attorney James Brosnahan said. "How can you get a fair trial under these circumstances?"

CNN NewsPass VIDEO "Taliban American" soldier John Walker Lindh loses his bid for a change of venue and status as a combatant. CNN's Bob Franken reports (June 17) Play video   RESOURCES • Defendant's motion alleging combat immunity  • U.S. opposition to changing venue  (FindLaw documents, PDF format)   EXTRA INFORMATION • Timeline: The John Walker Lindh case  • People in the News: John Walker Lindh profile      LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

Ellis ruled there had not been sufficient pretrial publicity to warrant holding the trial elsewhere.

One hundred, eighty-nine people were killed when hijackers deliberately crashed a jetliner into the Pentagon on September 11.

Alternative trial site suggested

Walker Lindh, 21, is accused of being an al Qaeda-trained terrorist who conspired with the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill Americans.

He has pleaded not guilty to a 10-count indictment that includes charges of conspiring to kill Americans overseas, providing support to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and using firearms and other destructive devices during crimes of violence.

If convicted of all the charges, he could receive up to three life sentences, plus 90 years in prison.

The trial is scheduled to start in late August.

Walker Lindh was in his green prison uniform in court. His mother, father and sister were present. He nodded toward his sister and smiled at her. She smiled back.

In filings, the attorneys said holding the trial near the Pentagon would taint the jury pool.

They drew a comparison to the trial of Timothy McVeigh in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. McVeigh's trial was moved to Denver.

The defense asked Ellis to move Walker Lindh's trial to the San Francisco area, where the defendant grew up and his family lives.

Prosecutors countered that Walker Lindh had not lived in the area since he left California and went to Yemen more than two years ago.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows told the judge that jurors in Virginia can be as fair as any in the country, and said the September 11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing can't be equated because the Oklahoma City bombing had a "singular and unique" impact on that city.

Combat and the law

CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

On their motion to have the case dropped, defense attorneys argued Lindh has combat immunity as a soldier and that he had the constitutional right to associate with the Taliban.

They said he joined the Taliban to fight the Northern Alliance and never intended to fight Americans.

Walker Lindh was taken into custody by the U.S. military after a bloody prison uprising, which began in late November in Afghanistan. During the uprising, CIA agent Mike Spann was killed.

Constitutional arguments are not unusual in major criminal cases, but few involve the rights of a U.S. citizen captured abroad as an enemy combatant.

In motions filed in May, Walker Lindh's attorneys argued that prosecuting him "violates the well-established international law principle of combat immunity."

According to the principle, soldiers can be prosecuted for war crimes, but not for simply taking part in an armed conflict. The attorneys argued the United States asserted the principle when North Vietnam threatened to prosecute U.S. soldiers as war criminals.

Federal prosecutors say that combat immunity applies only to combatants for a lawful armed force. President Bush determined in February that the Taliban was not a lawful force and their soldiers were not entitled to prisoner of war status under the Geneva Convention.

-- CNN Producer Laura Bernardini contributed to this report.