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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 21st,
2007 - No Time in Prison for Marine Convicted of Kidnapping Iraqi |
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No Time in Prison for Marine
Convicted of Kidnapping Iraqi By Paul von Zielbauer New York Times July 21, 2007 A Marine infantryman
convicted earlier this week of kidnapping and conspiracy to murder an Iraqi
man was sentenced by a military jury yesterday to a demotion and bad-conduct
discharge, but no prison time. Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, a
Marine infantryman, before his sentencing on Friday at Camp Pendleton. The sentence for the
infantryman, Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, was decided in less than an hour of
deliberation at Camp Pendleton, Calif., by a jury composed mostly of fellow
enlisted men. Military law experts said
Corporal Thomas’s sentence was an unusually lenient punishment for crimes as
grave as those the same jury convicted him of committing. All nine jury members -
three officers and six enlisted men - had served in combat in Iraq. That shared experience may
have led them to view Corporal Thomas’s case more compassionately, said Gary
D. Solis, a former Marine judge advocate who teaches the laws of war at the
Georgetown University Law Center and the United States Military Academy at
West Point. “Sometimes, juries soften
the harsh outlines of the law,” Mr. Solis said in an interview. “The jury
clearly signaled in its findings its sympathy for the accused.” Corporal Thomas, who is to
be demoted to private, had already served more than 500 days in military
confinement since being charged, along with six other marines and a Navy
corpsman, in connection with the abduction and killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad
in Hamdaniya in April 2006. In all, the jury found
Corporal Thomas, of Madison, Ill., guilty on Wednesday of kidnapping and
conspiracy to commit murder, larceny and housebreaking, and conspiracy to make
false official statements. Military prosecutors had asked the jury to impose
a 15-year prison sentence and a dishonorable discharge, the harshest form of
expulsion for enlisted men. During the court-martial,
defense lawyers for Corporal Thomas argued that he had been following orders
from his squad leader. Victor Kelley, Corporal
Thomas’s civilian lawyer, said he that was pleased with the sentence and that
the jury members, including marines who had been wounded in Iraq, “respect
Corporal Thomas because they’ve been there.” External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/world/middleeast/21marine.html |