Col. Morris Davis (who we’ve blogged about before here and here), posted some comments on the Hamdan verdict at Opinio Juris:
The jury sentenced Hamdan to 66 months. The judge gave him credit for nearly 61 months of time served, so he has less than 6 months remaining on his sentence. Hamdan won in the Supreme Court in 2006 and ended up back in his cell. He won again a little over a year ago when Judge Allred dismissed charges because the word “unlawful” was missing from the CSRT determination, which is required for MCA jurisdiction. Again, Hamdan won but ended up back in his cell. This time he lost, but in the end losing may equate to winning. It remains to be seen whether the administration intends to keep Hamdan past the end of his sentence; doing so begs the question of why we even bother to hold trials. If you look at Hicks (9 months) and Hamdan (<6 months) it suggests the best way to win at Gitmo is to lose.
While the conviction may have been a “win” for Hamdan, Kevin Jon Heller also suggests that the conviction may be unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, Hamdan is going to be in movies.