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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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September 12th, 2006 - U.S. Again
Won’t Seek Death Penalty in Iraq Killing |
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U.S. Again Won’t Seek Death Penalty
in Iraq Killing By Adam Tanner Reuters 12 Sep 2006 22:40:29 GMT Camp Pendelton, Calif. -
U.S. military prosecutors said on Tuesday that they will not pursue the death
penalty against another Marine charged in the April shooting death of an
Iraqi man in Hamdania. Lt. Col. John Baker, the
lead prosecutor, said he would not seek capital punishment against a second
of the eight service members facing charges in the death, Marine Lance Cpl.
Jerry Shumate Jr., 21, of Matlock, Washington. But Baker, during a brief
closing statement at the end of an hour-long preliminary hearing at Camp
Pendleton in southern California, told the investigating officer that there
is "probable cause" to send the case to a trial. Shumate, a rifleman with an
infantry battalion based at Camp Pendleton, is charged with premeditated
murder, conspiracy, larceny, assault, housebreaking, kidnapping and
obstruction of justice. The Marine Corps has charged
him along with six other Marines and a sailor in the April 26 shooting death
of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania, a town west of Baghdad. The eight are accused of
dragging the 52-year-old Iraqi from his home, shooting him and putting an
assault rifle and a shovel next to his body to create the appearance that he
was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb. The Hamdania case is among a
series of investigations by the U.S. military in which service members are
accused of killing Iraqi civilians, including a November 2005 killing of 24
in Haditha. Those cases have caused outrage from the Iraqi government. On Tuesday, the government
called three witnesses, all special agents with the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service, one of whom said Shumate broke down during his
questioning. "He was crying,"
Kelly Garbo, a 25-year-old special agent, said of a two-hour May 11 interview
in Iraq. "I told him that other members of the squad had been honest and
truthful and they told the real story of what happened that night, that there
was indeed a kidnapping, there was a murder." A key part of the
government's evidence against Shumate are two statements the Marine made to
investigators in May in Iraq. Col. Robert Chester, the
investigating officer in the case, refused a request by Shumate's defense
attorneys to close the hearing in an attempt to lessen publicity in the case,
which has garnered international interest. "I think that the
public has a very important right to be here," Chester said. Shumate and seven other
members of his squad have been confined to the Camp Pendleton prison since
May 24. On Aug. 30, U.S. military
prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty for another of the of
eight servicemen, Pfc. John Jodka, 20, but did not indicate what penalty they
would seek against Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, whose hearing was also held that
day. Preliminary hearings for the
remaining five men are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 18. Their senior commander, Lt.
Gen. James Mattis, will eventually decide whether any of them should face any
punishment or charges at a general court-martial. Under military law, the
most serious charge of premeditated murder could carry a sentence of death. External link:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12350622.htm |