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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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December 2nd,
2006 - Hutchins Arraignment Slated for Thursday |
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Hutchins Arraignment
Slated for Thursday By Mark Walker North County Times Saturday, December 2, 2006 11:16 PM PST North County - He's at the
center of one of the most notorious cases ever lodged against Camp Pendleton
Marines, yet Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III has yet to be heard from, having
waived his right to make any statement during an October pretrial hearing. While Hutchins said nothing
that day, military prosecutors are armed with what they say is plenty of
damaging evidence and incriminating statements against the 22-year-old
Massachusetts native. Hutchins, who remains in the
Camp Pendleton brig where he has been held since being returned from Iraq in
late May, is accused of being the man who drove a plot that led to what
prosecutors say was the senselessly brutal kidnapping and killing of an Iraqi
civilian in the early morning darkness on April 26 in the village of
Hamdania. On Thursday, Hutchins is
scheduled to make only his second appearance in a Camp Pendleton courtroom
since the prosecution charged him, along with the Marines he had led that
night and their Navy corpsman. At 9 a.m., an arraignment
hearing for Hutchins will commence in which he will have his first
opportunity under the military justice system to formally enter a plea to
charges of murder, kidnapping, assault, larceny, housebreaking, conspiracy
and making three false statements to investigators concerning the death of
Hashim Ibrahim Awad. Hutchins' troubles don't end
with that slate of felony accusations. He also faces an assault charge for
the alleged beating of three Iraqis on April 10 in the same village where
Awad was seized from his home, bound, gagged and shot at least 16 times. Whether Hutchins will make
any kind of statement this week isn't clear. Under the military justice
system, attorneys can enter a plea on his behalf and reserve a decision on
whether the third-generation Marine will ask for a jury trial or a trial
before a judge only. ‘A point which a prosecutor cannot go’ Hutchins' attorney, Rich
Brannon, said that despite negotiated plea deals reached by four of the
Marines under Hutchins' command, the full story of what happened in Hamdania
has not been told. There is evidence that has
yet to emerge in the hearings that surrounded the plea deals, Brannon
suggested. The Georgia-based attorney has said he wants to know what orders
Hutchins had been given when he led his squad from the 2nd platoon of Kilo
Company from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment on what was
supposed to be an ambush patrol against insurgent activity. Nonetheless, the chances of
Hutchins pleading to a reduced offense, as four of the Marines have done, are
considered remote, according to statements from Brannon and former Marine
Corps attorney and military law expert Gary Solis. "We intend to go to
trial," Brannon said last week. Solis, who teaches military
law at Georgetown University in Washington, said Hutchins is the least likely
to be able to negotiate a plea deal to a lesser offense. "Given that four
individuals have pleaded guilty and made statements pointing at him, he faces
the strong possibility of conviction," Solis said in a telephone
interview last week. "I would be very surprised if there was any deal in
the case of the individual considered the primary actor." The possibility that a plea
deal could be reached cannot be fully dismissed, Solis said, but added that
"there is a point which a prosecutor cannot go." "There is no reason for
the government to deal at this point," he said. "Let the chips fall
where they may." Spirit is strong Hutchins' father, Larry
Hutchins Sr., said last week during a telephone interview from his home in
Plymouth, Mass.: "He seems to be in good spirits. Most of the time when
I talk to him, he tells me a little about the case and then asks about family
and how things are around here." Two weeks ago, the Marine
Corps let Hutchins out of the brig for a short time so that he could wed his
longtime fiancee, Reyna, in a ceremony at a base chapel. The couple have a
2-year-old daughter, Kylie. Like Brannon, Larry Hutchins
Sr. has hinted that there is more to the story of who Awad was than military
prosecutors have painted. During sentencing hearings for the men who have
pleaded guilty, Awad has repeatedly been described as an innocent victim and
the kind of person the Marines are in Iraq to help, according to one
prosecutor. Hutchins' father doesn't
accept those descriptions. The senior Hutchins recently
told an Associated Press reporter who visited with him at his home that Awad
was "no angel like they're trying to make him out to be." He said: "This guy
wasn't your innocent guy sitting at home having a cup of coffee. It's all
going to come out. There's proof. I've seen it." Last week, he reiterated
those remarks and said the family's friends and neighbors believe in his
son's innocence. "Everybody stands
behind him, family especially. They all know Larry and what he is truly like.
The people who know Larry seem to think that this was war and bad things
happen." In the end, his father said,
he expects his son to remain resolute. "He is a strong man,
otherwise he wouldn't have been the squad leader." External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/12/03/news/top_stories/21_55_2312_2_06.txt |