Might the Somali pirate have an Apprendi claim to try to thwart his federal prosecution?

This latest news from New York federal courts all of a sudden gives me a great excuse to end my afternoon with a little pirate blogging from Apprendi-land:

A Somali teenager accused of holding hostage a U.S. ship captain in the Indian Ocean after an attempted hijacking will be tried as an adult in New York on piracy charges, a U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday.

Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the sole surviving accused pirate from the foiled bid to hijack huge U.S. container ship the Maersk Alabama earlier this month, was put in custody until his next court appearance on May 21.

Muse is charged with piracy, conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to commit hostage taking and related firearms offenses.  He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted....

Muse appeared at a hearing in Manhattan federal court after being brought to New York by U.S. authorities late on Monday.  Parts of the hearing were closed to the public due to questions about whether Muse was less than 18 years old.

Defense attorney Philip Weinstein said he spoke to Muse's father in Somalia, who said his son is 15 years old but prosecutors said Muse told the FBI he was over 18.  U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck eventually ruled Muse is 18 years old.

As all sentencing fans know, Apprendi holds that "any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt."  Though some might be inclined to argue that the age of the Somali pirate use is a "jurisdictional fact" not subject to Apprendi, functionally a determination of Muse's age is highly consequential to his fate.  And, though I doubt Muse's attorneys would want this age determination made by a jury, I am certain he would prefer that the proof standard on this issue was "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Does anyone know if the proof standard was discussed or debated before Judge Peck in today's hearing?  Does anyone know whether and how Muse's attorneys might appeal this determination at this stage of the proceedings?

One recent related post:

• Scholarly exploration of applying Apprendi to juve transfer decisions

UPDATE:  I just found this effective new AP article suggesting good reasons to wonder about the proof surrounding Muse's age, which in turn suggests that the applicable proof standard for Muse's age could be very important going forward:

Muse's personal details are murky, with his parents in Somalia insisting he was tricked into getting involved in piracy.  His age also remained unclear. 

His parents said he is only 16.  U.S. law enforcement said he is at least 18 and a federal judge agreed Tuesday, ruling that Muse is an adult and that the case can proceed in open court.  Muse's mother said she has no records to prove his age, but she and the teen's father say he is 16. "I never delivered my babies in a hospital," she said.

A classmate, however, said he believed Muse could be older — and that he studied English at school.  "I think he was one or two years older than me, and I am 16," said Abdisalan Muse, reached by telephone in Galkayo. "We did not know him to be a pirate, but he was always with older boys, who are likely to be the ones who corrupted him."

It is rare for Somalis to have formal birth records, and U.S. officials did not say on what basis they believe him to be 18 or older....

In New York, legal experts said the age issue will play a key role as the case develops.

"Age very much matters to how this case will be treated and how he himself will be treated in both the short and long term," said Daniel Richman, professor of Law at Columbia University Law School.  He said it was important from a federal prosecutor's perspective on getting him treated as an adult to "avoid difficult and cumbersome proceedings."

Karen Greenberg, executive director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University's Law School, said that the case could bring the U.S. under international criticism.  "If he is a juvenile and he is tried as an adult and given life imprisonment, it will not help the reputation we are trying hard to reform," she said. "International law is more lenient when it comes to juveniles and we already take criticism."