Torture controversy ensnares state lawyer
Thursday, December 17, 2009 (12-16) 17:18 PST BERKELEYÂ -- Critics of John Yoo, the author of the Bush administration's so-called torture memos, want a lawyer in state Attorney General Jerry Brown's office to drop his plans to teach a constitutional law class with the UC Berkeley professor next semester. "By instructing a class with Mr. Yoo, you are helping to legitimize his illegal and unethical actions," organizations led by the National Lawyers Guild said Tuesday in an open letter to Deputy Attorney General David Carrillo, a doctoral candidate and instructor at the university's Boalt Hall law school. They asked Carrillo either to teach the course by himself, if the school will allow it, or to leave it to Yoo. Signers included the law school's chapter of La Raza Law Students Association and the Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture. Carrillo did not return phone calls about the letter. Brown's office issued a statement Wednesday saying Carrillo was teaching on his own time as part of his study for an advanced legal degree. "Mr. Carrillo's activities at Berkeley Law are unrelated to his work at the (state) Department of Justice, and we are told that they have nothing whatsoever to do with torture memos that John Yoo may have authored," Brown's office said... |
