Late last year, Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr agreed to a plea deal that will require him to serve a maximum of eight years, with just one of those years in Cuba. Khadr is then set to be returned to Canada – his family’s adopted home, which they left for the Taliban and al Qaeda’s Afghanistan prior to 9/11. There, he may serve the remaining seven years of his sentence, or he may seek (and be granted) an early release. Therefore, the plea deal granted to this son of al Qaeda, who killed an American serviceman in Afghanistan, is an especially lenient sentence.

Not content with the terms of the plea deal, however, Khadr’s attorneys are asking a military commission for clemency. They want the plea deal reduced to just four years. Khadr’s lawyers are also not happy that a military tribunal handed out a 40-year sentence to their client. (It doesn’t seem to matter to them that Khadr won’t serve close to 40 years, as his plea deal remains intact.) The defense attorneys are clearly spooked that Khadr would have served a much longer sentence if the plea deal hadn’t been reached. The tribunal’s sentence may have ramifications for future proceedings as well.