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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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April 17th,
2007 - Attorney Moves to Close Hamdania Hearing |
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Attorney Moves to Close
Hamdania Hearing By Mark Walker North County Times April 17, 2007 8:38 PM PDT Camp Pendleton - An attorney
for a Marine corporal accused in the April slaying of an Iraqi civilian asked
a military judge Tuesday to close portions of a pretrial hearing to the
public and news media. Joseph Low, a civilian
attorney representing Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda, told the judge that some
of the information that would come out during the hearing could possibly
prejudice a panel of military officers and enlisted men empaneled to hear the
case against his client. The judge, Lt. Col. Eugene
Robinson, is expected to rule on the motion this morning. Before he does so, an
attorney representing the North County Times will ask the court to hear
argument on why the hearing should not be closed. Low's request came on the
first of three days of legal arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys
about various motions in advance of Magincalda's trial, which is scheduled to
start June 11. A native of Manteca,
Magincalda is charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related
offenses in the abduction and shooting death of Iraq's Hashim Ibrahim Awad on
April 26, 2006, in the village of Hamdania. The village is in the volatile
Anbar province west of Baghdad. Magincalda has pleaded not
guilty. Low contended that extensive
coverage of the Hamdania case, in which five of the eight men originally
charged have reached plea agreements with prosecutors, has potentially
tainted potential jury members. He said coverage of this week's pretrial
hearing could further jeopardize Magincalda's right to a fair trial. The three areas in which Low
asked the court to close the proceedings were not clearly identified. Shortly
after Low made his request, Robinson adjourned the hearing until this
morning. Editors for the North County
Times said they will contest the move to shutter the hearing on the basis
that like civilian trials, military legal proceedings are open to the public
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and that there has been widespread
public interest in the Hamdania case. Tuesday's proceedings began
with the defense asking the judge not to restrict how much jurors could be
told about the five men who reached plea deals. The government does not want
the jurors to know how much jail time each of those men received. One of Magincalda's
appointed military attorneys, Lt. Col. Philip Simmons, told the judge that
Navy Corpsman Melson Bacos, one of the men who got a plea deal and was
sentenced to only a year in custody, has motivation to say whatever
prosecutors want the jurors to hear. Bacos is required to testify for the
prosecution as a condition of his plea agreement. "Our case is about our
ability to show his motive to lie," Simmons said. "We believe he
pleaded guilty to a crime he didn't commit because of the incredibly good
deal he got when he could have been facing life in prison." Prosecutors charged eight
men from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment with murder and related
offenses last June. The five who struck plea deals have been sentenced to
terms ranging from the 12 months that Bacos received to eight years behind
bars that was handed down to Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington. Besides Magincalda, the
remaining defendants are Cpl. Trent Thomas and the squad leader, Sgt.
Lawrence Hutchins III. The Hamdania case is
separate from one involving Marines from another base regiment charged in the
slayings of 24 Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha in November 2005. Hutchins is scheduled to go
to trial starting July 16. Thomas, who had pleaded guilty but then was
allowed to withdraw that plea and proceed to trial, is scheduled to go on
trial starting June 18. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04/18/military/1_58_334_17_07.txt |