'Tough Guy' Judge Leads Judicial Reform Overseas

(Aug. 16) -- He's survived the Vietnam War's bloodiest battle, faced down members of the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia prison gangs, and traveled through the Middle East with a Blackwater security team.

But his most lasting legacy could be changing the judicial system in Third World countries where corruption reigns.

This might sound like some action hero caricature, but it's actually a federal judge based out of Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, 66, is the Department of Justice's secret weapon in fighting the bloodshed in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bosnia, the Philippines, Georgia and other countries.

Since 1999, he has been traveling to some of the most dangerous places on Earth, training judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys how to put a multipronged judicial system in place of kangaroo courts where defendants are believed guilty before trials even start.

It's a dangerous mission requiring armed guards, clandestine meetings and living accommodations in some pretty dingy digs by American standards. The foreign judges and attorneys who participate in the training are often marked for death. Carter asked AOL News not to show the faces of the others involved out of fear of retribution.

"The things we take for granted in America are not what they take for granted overseas," Carter said from his court chambers, which is decorated with mementos of the Vietnam War and his years as a state criminal judge before he was elevated to the federal bench.

"There is an assumption of guilt -- the judge would start out with, 'Why did you commit the crime?' The judge would do the questioning, and the lawyers just sat there. You would never believe it unless you saw it," he said.

"He's a Tough Guy"

Changing the judicial system in countries where corruption has ruled for generations is not an easy task, but that doesn't deter Carter. The decorated Marine was a lieutenant during the Vietnam War's battle of Khe Sanh, a 77-day attack on a U.S. military base that resulted in hundreds of American deaths.

"David Carter is a true war hero and a highly decorated Marine. He's a tough guy," said Robert O'Brien, a former United Nations representative and co-chairman of a Justice Department initiative to create a democratic system of justice in Afghanistan. O'Brien was asked to head the Afghanistan judicial reform effort in 2008 by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and he brought on Carter as an instructor because he knew of the judge's other endeavors and liked his no-nonsense approach.

"If we can instill rule of law societies and help prevent those countries from becoming failed states, it may be possible to avoid sending young Marines in those places if the society breaks down," O'Brien told AOL News.

Certainly Carter knows that type of danger. During Khe Sanh, he was shot but kept pulling his men to safety, refusing aid until everyone else had been cared for. Half of the 40 men under his command were killed.

"He was shot in both arms, through the buttocks and in the head," said Alfred Anderson, one of Carter's officers. "He would not let the corpsmen work on him. As they tried to dress his wounds, he said, 'I'll take care of it myself, and you take care of my men.'"

Carter spent a year in the hospital and was awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, among other medals. He doesn't like to talk about his war years, waving off any mention of valor and instead giving credit to the men who died.

Spending such a long time in the hospital gave Carter the opportunity to think about his future, and he decided that he'd rather spend his life trying to make a difference in society. So he became a crack prosecutor, made a failed bid for Congress and became an Orange County Superior Court criminal judge who spent his own money removing tattoos from gang members who wanted to go straight. But at the same time, Carter wouldn't hesitate to impose the death penalty or a maximum sentence.

A Clinton appointee to the federal bench, Carter presided over some of the nation's most notorious cases. Among them were the largest racketeering and organized-crime indictment to date, involving 40 Aryan Brotherhood prison gang members on charges of carrying out a murderous rampage going back decades; a similar Mexican Mafia case with a like number of defendants; and a Chinese organized-crime figure who ran a gun-running business behind bars.

"Never Been Afraid of Dying"

Against this backdrop, someone like Carter feels right at home in nations rife with terrorism.

"I've never been afraid of dying," he said. "After Vietnam, it seems like death is so random."

Still, he takes every precaution when visiting Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan or any of the other nations. He is met at the airport by a convoy of Blackwater security officers or government police and whisked away to a low-end hotel, rented house or trailer to avoid detection.

"I don't want to stay anywhere fancy. I just want to go where I have a couple of bottles of water and a candy bar," he said of his monthly trips. "This is not luxury."

Carter often meets with heads of state who have commissioned the reforms, along with the American equivalent of Supreme Court justices and attorneys general. The training sessions are held in secret locations, where judges and attorneys learn the basic concepts of utilizing a prosecution and defense with an impartial judge.

Some of the judges are reluctantly giving up their all-consuming power, but many others welcome the change. All of the participants do so at great personal risk.

"I don't know if, when I come back here, some of these people will still be alive," Carter said. "They are the brave ones. I get to go home to California."

The Taliban and other warlords do not want a strong judicial system and have targeted reformers. One female attorney was told her family would be killed, and a judge who was to attend law classes in the U.S. was assassinated before he could do so.

Still, Carter has forged ahead and, with O'Brien, helped launch a new stage in this training effort by establishing scholarships for attorneys and judges at American law schools.

His star pupils are from Georgia, the former Soviet republic that Carter has visited eight times in the past year. This country is poised to hold its first jury trial in the fall for a murder case, and Carter plans on attending.

"They're way ahead of the rest," Carter said. "In fact, one of their favorite TV programs back there is a type of 'Law and Order.'"

It's a slow process, with some of the other countries years behind Georgia's progress. Carter and O'Brien have no foreseeable plans on cutting back their endeavors. The State Department is also involved, along with various law schools and law firms that have donated funds. A few other federal judges take intermittent trips, but no one logs the miles like Carter.

"The hardest thing is knowing what they are capable of accomplishing versus what they would like to do," Carter said. "You can only nudge them in the right direction, and sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Often I find the best advice comes at dinner and coffee."