LJWorld.com / Lawyer says his arrest is warning about liberty

Archive for Tuesday, June 1, 2004

The Associated Press

June 1, 2004

Topeka — Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon lawyer wrongfully imprisoned this month in connection with terrorist bombings in Spain, said his ordeal underscored a warning he has sounded since his days as a law student at Washburn University.

At Washburn in 1996 and 1997, Mayfield said, an interest in constitutional law spurred him to write a paper cautioning against attacks on personal rights and privileges. He titled the paper "Liberty" -- what Mayfield lost after the FBI linked him to the March 11 bombings and held him as a material witness for two weeks.

"One of the messages of the paper was you have to protect people even if the majority doesn't agree with them, provided they aren't breaking the law," he said Sunday. "That this happened to me was kind of ironic in that sense."

Mayfield, a 37-year-old Muslim convert, said he believes he was targeted for investigation because of his religion. He said his incarceration also pointed out alarming problems with the USA Patriot Act, which, among other provisions, allowed FBI agents to search his home without his knowledge.

"The Patriot Act goes way too far in taking away our privacy and freedom as U.S. citizens," Mayfield said.

Mayfield was taken into custody May 6 in connection with the bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded 2,000 others in Madrid. The FBI admitted Monday it had blundered in linking Mayfield's fingerprint to the one from the bag of detonators. Mayfield, who had been discharged from jail the week before, was released from all restrictions on his movements.