Holy Land Foundation Charity Convicted On Terror Financing Charges

Leaders of the Holy Land Foundation "charity" claimed that this was a persecution rather than a prosecution and that they would be exonerated on retrial. It looks like they were wrong. In the retrial, there were108 charges against the Holy Land Foundation and five of its former leaders. Guess what; they were found guilty on all counts:

The verdict was announced Monday afternoon, on the eighth day of deliberations in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. It was once the nation's largest Muslim charity.

Holy Land is accused of giving more than $12 million to support the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The group was designated by the government as a terrorist organization in 1995.

This is what happens when prosecutors simplify their case in chief to enable jurors to reach decisions. The original case got bogged down due to hundreds of charges levied against the principals involved and resulted in a hung jury.

The main lesson to be learned from this prosecution is that prosecutors must keep the cases simple to avoid bogging jurors down in information overload due to the complex nature of the cases - financing terrorism with shady transactions.