Chesterfield County lawyer Prescott L. Prince has a record of representing some of the area's worst criminals in his two-decade legal career in Richmond. But his life's work could be redefined by a single case of historic proportions: defending the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

He's embracing the challenge, not dreading it.

Prince's improbable journey as lead defense counsel for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, perhaps the world's most notorious terrorist behind Osama bin Laden, began a little more than a year ago when the 53-year-old Navy Reserve captain was called to active duty.

Thinking he would probably get a desk job in Washington, Prince and his wife, Judy August, also an attorney, were more than a little surprised when he was sent to Iraq for six months as a Navy legal adviser for detainee operations.

With about two months left, he was approached by the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions to join its team and represent one of the high-value al-Qaida detainees being held in America's war on terrorism. He was soon offered, and accepted, the job of defending the man charged with murder in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in the 2001 attacks.

Though warned that "some people may hate you" for representing one of the most reviled people on the planet, Prince said he accepted without hesitation.

"I said, 'Is there any reason I should turn it down?'" Prince recalled telling his commanders.

"That's what defense attorneys do, they take tough cases," he added. "If people dislike us for it, oh well, that's on them."

Prince -- a Richmond-reared graduate of George Wythe High School who until his call-up ran a solo law practice here -- playfully equated his mission to being tapped by the Boston Red Sox to pitch against the New York Yankees in the seventh game of the World Series. "Would you say no?" he said. "You're on the team because your job is to play. And if your time in the rotation comes, then you'll do it."

. . .

Since being appointed Mohammed's attorney in early April, Prince has conferred about eight times totaling 25 hours with the man whose name the government has reduced to an acronym -- KSM.

"He's polite and appropriate in dealing with his legal team," Prince said when asked about the Kuwaiti native who has claimed to be the chief architect of the Sept. 11 attacks and to have personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl because of his Jewish ancestry.

Prince said Mohammed, about 43, doesn't come across as bitter, angry or hateful, "but I'm not sure I can offer you anything about his mind-set."

Prince said he is bound under "excruciatingly narrow protective orders" that prohibit him from disclosing much of anything about Mohammed, especially anything he has shared in conversations. "Anything my client states is presumptively classified," Prince said.

But Prince did offer a glimpse of what Mohammed thinks of the military tribunal proceedings under which he presumably will be tried, as well as how he might frame Mohammed's defense.

During his arraignment June 5, Mohammed advised the court he wishes to represent himself, which would essentially leave Prince as Mohammed's "standby" attorney and legal adviser. Yet Prince must still prepare a defense should Mohammed change his mind or is later ruled incompetent to act as his own attorney.

"Basically he rejected the jurisdiction of the court," Prince said. "In essence he said that accepting counsel was contrary to his view of Islamic law, because that would be equivalent to accepting jurisdiction of a court, which he considered improper."

However, Prince said it appears that Mohammed -- despite his courtroom declarations of wishing to die a martyr -- will continue working with him and the defense team. Prince is being assisted by an assistant military defense counsel, an intelligence analyst, two civilian attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and a paralegal whom Prince must share with another detainee lawyer.

"He has not refused to see us, and he has not rejected us out of hand," Prince said.

. . .

At Mohammed's last hearing, Prince and attorneys for four other detainees facing charges related to the Sept. 11 attacks jointly filed a motion to have their cases continued to allow more time to prepare. Under the court's rules, defendants are required to stand trial within 120 days after their arraignment.

"That would have us going to trial sometime in September, and there's no way that's going to happen," Prince said.

The military commission could rule on the motion at a hearing on Thursday, Prince said.

That means yet another separation for Prince and August, who were able to spend the Fourth of July together at their Chesterfield home. August is doing her best to keep the couple's blended family together and keep her own legal career afloat as her husband shuttles to and from Guantanamo and his working quarters in Rosslyn. They have three children in college.

"It's the second marriage for both of us, but we are very, very close," August said. "This is not what either one of us envisioned when he was recalled into active military service."

Prince is respected among his peers in the Richmond area for his knowledge of the law, case preparation and varied experience.

Veteran defense attorney Craig S. Cooley said he wasn't aware Prince had been tapped for the job but wasn't surprised the military wanted him.

"I've watched his work, [and] I've admired him both personally and professionally for a good while," said Cooley, who believes Prince is "absolutely" up to the task. "He's a very fine attorney, always well-prepared. He has a very common-sense approach to things."

In one case, Prince represented a 16-year-old who in the opening moments of Jan. 1, 1992, carried out his boast to commit Richmond's first murder of the year. Prince also defended a woman who gave her 4-month-old child heroin, as well as a man who scalded his girlfriend's 7-month-old son to death in a bathtub.

Army Col. Steve David, chief defense counsel for the military commissions, said Prince was the "logical choice" to represent Mohammed, who "allegedly is the worst of the worst."

"He could bring his maturity and his varied life experiences dealing with multiple issues over the years, [including] client control issues, judge issues, investigations, experts and trial strategy," said David, who selected Prince for the job. "I felt he was the perfect fit."

. . .

Mohammed is no stranger to Western ways, which has helped Prince develop a tenuous rapport with his client and establish some modicum of trust. In the mid-1980s, Mohammed lived in the United States while earning a degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. He speaks "decent English" and does not require a translator, Prince said.

Although attentive and actively engaged in his defense, Mohammed does appear to suffer from "some level of psychological impairment" as a result of the treatment he has received, added Prince, who in addition to a law degree holds a master's in psychology.

The CIA has admitted that Mohammed is one of three suspected al-Qaida leaders that were subjected to waterboarding, an interrogation technique that many equate to a form of torture.

Mohammed has been in custody since he was captured in Pakistan in 2003, about a year after he publicly boasted in an interview that he orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks. He was placed in the CIA's secret detention program for three years until his transfer to the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006.

"He's been held for five years at the total whim of the government and during much of that time he had, in essence, disappeared. He was held incommunicado," Prince said.

Although Prince said no one could mistake him for liberal, he makes no secret of the fact that he believes Mohammed has been mistreated and that the deck is stacked against him through the tribunal system of justice.

Certain legal rights guaranteed to the accused in U.S. civilian courts don't apply in military commission trials.

"The government has the ability to use hearsay evidence against my client," Prince said. "I may not have the right to confront the people who are accusing my client. You don't appreciate the Sixth Amendment until you're told you're going to have to live without it."

Prince also is appalled by the government's plan to use information coerced from Mohammed through waterboarding, which would be unthinkable in a civilian court.

"Would you have ever thought that confessions extracted forcibly could be used in any kind of proceedings under an American flag?" Prince said.

After World War II, Prince noted, "we in fact executed Japanese that extracted confessions [from U.S. miltary personnel] through waterboarding. The people who carried it out were considered war criminals."

. . .

Although Mohammed has now moved to represent himself, Prince said he will discuss with him the option of appealing the decision to try him in a military commission, and if that fails, have him consider appealing any verdict that comes from it.

Prince also is assessing how Mohammed might be helped by last month's historic Supreme Court decision that gives foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo constitutional rights to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

Prince and other attorneys for the detainees being tried with Mohammed believe their cases should be transferred to a traditional military or civilian court, where they can be afforded constitutional guarantees.

"In a fantasy world, let's say KSM had been on one of the planes that went into the World Trade Center and he survived and had been captured," Prince said. "Wouldn't he have been tried for murder for 3,000 people in the Supreme Court of New York, or the Federal District Court of New York?

"What makes it different because he was snatched elsewhere?" he added.

The government's position, Prince said, has been that "we're acting under the president's powers to conduct war and that's not regulated by the Constitution. I've always considered that to be just a meaningless or specious argument."
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.