Attorneys for five alleged conspirators in the 9/11 attacks have asked a military judge to allow them to spend 48 hours at the Guantánamo Bay prison where their clients have been held. On the second day of a pretrial hearing, Navy Commander Walter Ruiz said the conditions of the suspects’ imprisonment should factor into whether they are ultimately sentenced to death.

Walter Ruiz: “It’s a case where we’ve asked to put people to death. And when the government sets out to put people to death, our Supreme Court has said standards are this high. One of those standards is our ability to go in and look at their conditions of confinement, look at how they live.”