The accidental destruction of documents justifying the federal government’s eight-year investigation into a former University of South Florida professor raises questions about whether the government will be allowed to proceed in a case hailed as a key part of the war against terrorism. According to the Associated Press (AP), the documents were accidentally shredded by court clerks instructed to destroy old records in misdemeanor and petty offense cases. The destroyed documents included search warrants obtained for a 1995 search. That search and the information obtained from it became the basis for a lengthy investigation culminating in the professor's arrest earlier this year. One defense attorney called the destruction a significant development. Defense attorneys could ask the court to suppress evidence gathered from the 1995 search. However, now a defense attorney questions whether the professor, Sami Al-Arian, can get a fair trial. Roughly 6,400 people were investigated for terrorism-related crimes, and two of every three people investigated were not charged with any crime. The median prison sentence for those convicted was merely fourteen days, and only five people were given sentences of twenty years or more, according to an analysis of government data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.