Denbeaux & Denbeaux: Defending an American Value

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Defending the most basic human right

The Denbeaux team can speak eloquently about almost any aspect of Guantanamo Bay, but they always circle back and land on the same, shared conviction: These prisoners—like prisoners of all times and in all countries—deserve a trial.

"It's impossible to have an intellectually honest debate as to whether or not these guys are entitled to a trial. A trial! The only argument that might be persuasive is that the detainees aren't American citizens and aren't entitled to American justice," argues Josh. "I don't happen to agree with that—I think they are entitled to American justice because the Americans arrested them and are holding them for a lifetime. But OK, I don't care. I'll try these people on Mars, in Hackensack, or in London. You want to try them in The Hague? I'll get my plane ticket. Afghanistan? I'll rent a pony."

But both Denbeauxs say they are certain that the U.S. government will never allow the Guantanamo cases to go to trial, because the flimsy evidence could never support a legal conviction. The government would most certainly lose. "They can't afford to have it proven to the world that they are holding 517 people—most of them for absolutely no reason," says Mark.

That having been said, the Denbeauxs are certain they will win. They are confident that their clients, along with many others, will be released without a trial. This summer, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration had overstepped its authority when it decided to use exclusively military tribunals to prosecute the prisoners. Many of the prisoners are men without a country, and where they will go when they are released is unknown. The Denbeauxs say they are uncertain if their two clients will live long enough to see their freedom.

"Also, how damaged are we going to be as a country?" asks Mark. "The best thing for America would be to get them out and end this nightmare."

Like most Americans, the Denbeauxs want true justice for the true bad guys. One of Josh's best high school friends is the brother of the late Jeremy Glick, who led the passengers' battle to overpower terrorists on United Airlines Flight 93 and who lost his life on Sept. 11.

"The family of Jeremy Glick is not interested in having innocent people punished for their brother's and their son's death," says Josh. "Neither am I."

Maintaining optimism

The Guantanamo Bay experience has affected the Denbeauxs deeply, but it has left them neither cynical nor pessimistic. "For me, it deals with good and evil," says Mark. "Fundamentally, evil doesn't win, but it does terrible damage along the way. I'm optimistic that our country will recover from this and that we will learn and grow.We've recovered from 200 years of slavery, from the Japanese internments, from the Red Scare, from McCarthyism. It's not as if we've ever had an idyllic time when this country wasn't doing bad things."

The pair is quick to sniff out irony and to share a laugh. Contentious scrappers, they routinely interrupt each other and take frequent timeouts to flag the ridiculous. More than once the most ludicrous aspects of Guantanamo Bay prompt them to create Monty Python-style scenarios.

Quick to use a hot-headed expletive, Josh is also quick to pounce on what is important. He peppers his arguments with "Doesn't matter." "Who cares?" "Why is that important?"

Father and son, keenly aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses, are each other's biggest fans. "My father is a clumsy writer. He comes up with an idea, and he can't organize it. But his thinking is genuinely brilliant and insightful beyond anybody's compare. He takes a problem and turns it on its head and comes up with a way to describe it that changes everything," says Josh.

"This," says Mark, "is the greatest fun on earth, to be able to have such an interactive relationship with my son. It can be quite aggressive—there's a fair amount of testosterone—but we love each other very much."

Both men believe that each citizen must take responsibility for Guantanamo Bay. "Maybe we do have a government that is exploiting fear. But we can't blame the government," says Josh, "because the people allowed it to happen. It's my fault. It's your fault. It's every citizen's fault.

"That's what makes me the most angry. My clients are being held in prison forever, without a trial, in my name."

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