Gutierrez, Gitanjali - short clip - SuicidalClient

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-	I had a client once	0:00
	who was	0:02
	who was suicidal	0:05
	and was expressing it in a very subtle way	0:07
	that um	0:12
	I was not,	0:13
	quite,	0:14
	catching onto	0:15
	and my interpreter was giving me some cues	0:16
	to understand what was being said.	0:19
	The guy was trying to recite his will to me,	0:21
	in a way that was not like we would recite a will	0:26
	but just sort of tell my wife this,	0:28
	tell my family this,	0:30
	make sure that this happens.	0:32
	And the interpreter was like,	0:34
	you understand he's giving you a will.	0:35
	And then, you know, kept interpreting,	0:37
	and would just say, do you,	0:39
	he sort of was saying things like that,	0:40
	do you realize the importance of this?	0:41
	And all of a sudden I realized what was happening	0:44
	and they started shortening our meetings too.	0:47
	Like, we couldn't go as early in the morning	0:50
	and in the afternoon we were getting pulled out earlier.	0:52
	And um,	0:54
	so I started catching on what was happening	0:56
	and just stopped immediately	0:58
	and said, listen, you know,	0:59
	are you talking,	1:00
	he kept saying, "if something happens to me."	1:01
	And so I said, you know, "stop."	1:03
	And I said, "are you, are you talking about	1:04
	if they do something to you	1:06
	or you saying	1:07
	that you may make something happen to yourself?"	1:08
	So I'm trying to clarify what's going on	1:11
	and get some sort of,	1:13
	you know,	1:16
	can we talk about this next time I visit in a month	1:16
	or just something?"	1:18
	And it's 4:15	1:19
	and the MPO opens the door	1:21
	and says, "the meeting has got to end."	1:22
	And I snarl at him that "get out okay?	1:23
	Fine, we still have 10 minutes."	1:27
	And they just kept doing that.	1:28
	They just kept coming in	1:30
	and I just kept snarling at them to get out.	1:31
	But then at 4:30 they opened the door,	1:33
	and just stand there.	1:35
	So the interpreter and I kind of having this frantic	1:37
	and the client too,	1:41
	we're having this sort of frantic two minute conversation,	1:42
	and then I'm just I'm just booted out.	1:45
	You just have to leave.	1:47
	And we can't,	1:49
	we can't,	1:51
	at that point, we couldn't call our client.	1:52
	I can't, and I can't come back the next day	1:53
	and talk to him.	1:56
	These visits have to be planned	1:56
	a minimum 20 days in advance.	1:57
	And that's, it's usually been more logistically difficult	2:00
	cause the interpreter has to be available	2:02
	and your schedule has to be available.	2:03
	So, and the DOD has got to approve that date.	2:05
	So then you just walk out of the door,	2:07
	and hope that this isn't a crisis	2:10
	and that,	2:15
	you know,	2:16
	in a month,	2:17
	I'll be able to meet with a client	2:18
	and we'll pick up at this point	2:19
	but it's also,	2:21
	even if it was just sort of a red flag	2:21
	for I'm not doing well.	2:24
	To not be able to just spend an extra hour	2:25
	with a person	2:27
	and acknowledge it	2:29
	and kind of come up with a plan	2:30
	about what you're going to do between now	2:31
	and the next visit,	2:32
	really made things difficult.	2:34
	And that,	2:37
	that opening the door and standing there	2:38
	at the end of the meeting was very typical.	2:40
	And often, often,	2:41
	so many times,	2:43
	clients would have really hard things,	2:44
	they needed to talk about,	2:48
	that they would bring up in the last half hour of a meeting	2:50
	almost inevitably.	2:53
	And then it becomes kind of, they know you're leaving	2:54
	and they finally like frantically,	2:56
	we'll start talking about something	2:58
	and the NPS come in at that.	2:59
	And they won't, they won't leave.	3:01
	So I started ending my work,	3:02
	maybe an hour,	3:06
	before we had to leave.	3:09
Interviewer	Huh.	3:10
-	Depending on the client maybe even a little earlier,	3:11
	I would end the work.	3:12
	And then we would we would talk	3:14
	about whatever.	3:16
	We eat we talk.	3:17
	To just try and leave as much space as possible	3:20
	for that kind of stuff to come up,	3:21
	if I thought it may, if it was going to,	3:23
	so that we wouldn't have	3:25
	that kind of frantic last two minutes	3:26

Item Info

Title:

Gutierrez, Gitanjali - short clip - SuicidalClient

Date:

October 21, 2011

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Gutierrez, Gitanjali

Role:

Detainee Attorney

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Detainee Attorney
Gitanjali Gutierrez, female, age 41, is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and was the first habeas lawyer to visit her clients in Guantanamo in September 2004.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

2:33:40

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

0b433e67fc97466ee3122e9586090467
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4st7ng5p
99bdc293-f26d-4ffa-931a-f3a570d11c38

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4st7ng5p

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Gutierrez, Gitanjali - short clip - SuicidalClient

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Human Rights Archive

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