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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 9th,
2007 - Trial Begins for Corporal Facing Murder Charges |
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Trial Begins for Corporal Facing
Murder Charges in 2006 Death of Iraqi Civilian By Teri Figueroa & Mark Walker North County Times July 9, 2007 Camp Pendleton - The first
trial in the case of a group of Marines charged with abducting a retired
Iraqi policeman, killing him and staging his death to make it look like he
was an insurgent will get under way in a Camp Pendleton courtroom this morning. Prosecutors say it was
murder when Cpl. Trent Thomas, six other Marines and a Navy corpsman snatched
Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home, forced him to limp on a bad leg for more
than a mile and then shot him numerous times. Thomas pleaded guilty in
January to his role in Awad's death and said during an interview with CNN
that he took part in the plot. But three days into his
sentencing hearing in early February, he withdrew the guilty plea, telling
the court that he was following orders from co-defendant and platoon leader
Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins. Jurors will decide whether
Thomas is guilty of premeditated murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and other
crimes in the April 26, 2006, incident that took place in the village of
Hamdania, northwest of Baghdad. The 25-year-old St. Louis
native, who has been in the base jail since June 2006, faces life in prison
if convicted. Thomas' attorneys contend he
was following a "lawful order" and should be acquitted of the
charges. Lead attorney Victor Kelley
said last week that he expects testimony about who issued that order and what
it involved. "We are unsure about
the genesis of the orders given and what they were," Kelley said.
"If the entirety of the story comes out at the trial, I'm confident that
we will get a correct result." The Hamdania case is one of
three investigations involving Camp Pendleton troops and Iraqi deaths. Seven
men from another unit face charges for their roles in the deaths of 24 Iraqis
in Haditha in November 2006. The third investigation,
first disclosed earlier this month in a North County Times report, involves
allegations that Marines killed eight Iraqi prisoners of war in Fallujah in
November 2004. Thomas' court-martial, the
military equivalent of a trial, comes about 13 months after the Marine Corps
charged him and seven of his squad mates from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion,
5th Marine Regiment in connection with the Hamdania incident. Five pleaded guilty in
exchange for lighter sentences and for testifying against squad mates who
have pleaded not guilty. The men who struck deals with prosecutors received
jail sentences ranging from one to eight years. Thomas, Hutchins and Cpl.
Marshall Magincalda are the three defendants taking their cases to trial. Prosecutors say Hutchins was
the architect of the scheme, and that Thomas and Magincalda were the two men
who dragged Awad out of his home in the middle of the night. According to pretrial
testimony from some of Thomas' co-defendants, the plan was to kidnap and kill
a suspected insurgent, Saleh Gowad. Hours after hatching the plot in a palm
grove, four of the eight men headed out to find Gowad. When they couldn't find him,
they grabbed Awad. Squad mates have testified that when they did not find
Gowad, the men collectively agreed to carry out the plan they had made a few
hours earlier. They marched the 52-year-old
father of 11 children to the scarred site of a previous roadside bombing,
shot him to death in a hole and then staged the scene to make it appear that
the man had been planting a bomb, those who pleaded guilty have testified. At first, Awad's death
apparently raised no eyebrows among military officers. But when Awad's family
and town officials complained, the battalion commander ordered an investigation. Attorneys will choose the
panel from a group of 14 Marines, including three enlisted men. The most
junior prospective member is a staff sergeant; the most senior ranking is a
lieutenant colonel. A majority have combat experience, according to Kelley. A court-martial verdict
requires agreement by at least two-thirds of the jurors, or panel members, as
they are called in military court. On Friday, the last in a
series of pretrial motion hearings was conducted before the judge who will
preside over the trial, Lt. Col. David Jones. The session addressed routine
matters, including scheduling and the questions attorneys will be allowed to
ask prospective jurors. The trial is expected to
take 10 days or more, during which the defense is expected to introduce evidence
that Thomas was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "But if it (the trial)
takes four weeks, it takes four weeks," Jones told Thomas during
Friday's court proceedings. "You are going to get a fair trial." External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/09/news/top_stories/7807151244.txt |