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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 22nd,
2007 - Clues to Release of Convicted Marine |
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Clues to Release of Convicted
Marine Like Cpl. Trent Thomas, the jurors were Iraq veterans. And his lawyers
made a detailed case for trauma. By Tony Perry Los Angeles Times July 22, 2007 Camp Pendleton - Cpl. Trent
D. Thomas had all the makings of a recruiting-poster Marine: a decorated
warrior, devoted to his fellow grunts, hugely appreciative of the Marine
Corps for helping him escape an impoverished upbringing in East St. Louis. But he was also a leader in
the kidnapping and killing of an unarmed man in the Iraqi village of
Hamandiya and then lying to superiors about it. When other Marines began to
waver, Thomas, who won a meritorious promotion for his role in the bloody
fight in Fallouja, Iraq, in 2004, kept them in line. And as the Iraqi, whom
they considered an insurgent, lay on the ground mortally wounded, Thomas
pumped three bullets into his chest. So why did the military jury
that convicted Thomas of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder decide
Friday that he deserved no further punishment beyond the 14 months he had
spent in the brig awaiting trial? Thomas, 25, could have
received life in prison without the possibility of parole. Instead, he was
sent home to Fontana with his wife, Erica, and their two small children. The
jury also decided on a bad-conduct discharge rather than the more serious
dishonorable discharge that the prosecution requested. Unless the jurors violate
the judge's order not to talk about their decision, the reasons behind it may
never be fully known. But two clues stand out: the jury's composition and the
defense put on by Thomas' lawyers. All nine jurors were combat
veterans of Iraq, seven of them from infantry battalions. Of the three
officers on the jury, two had experience as enlisted Marines. Five of the
jurors were African American, as is Thomas. After the verdict, Thomas'
civilian and military lawyers told reporters that they wanted to thank Lt.
Gen. James N. Mattis for making sure Thomas had "a true jury of his
peers." Mattis, commanding general
of the Marine Forces Central Command, selected the pool from which the jurors
were picked. Deanna Pennington, mother of
Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, who pleaded guilty and accepted an eight-year
prison sentence, told reporters later that her son took a plea bargain
because his jury pool contained few combat veterans. Her son feared that
Marines who had not been to Iraq would never understand what happened in
Hamandiya that night in April 2006. During the court-martial,
Thomas' attorneys also asserted that he was suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The defense backed up the
assertion with possibly the most detailed explanation of those conditions yet
seen in a court-martial for Marines in Iraq, including expert testimony that
proximity to repeated explosions from roadside bombs and mortar rounds had
left Thomas' thinking and judgment impaired. In January, Thomas pleaded
guilty and was prepared to accept a 12-year prison sentence, but changed his
mind and asked for a trial. Four Marines and a Navy corpsman pleaded guilty
in the case and received sentences of 10 months to eight years. Two final courts-martial,
including one for the alleged mastermind, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, are set
to begin this week. Whether the decision by the
jury in Thomas' case will influence those trials is unknown. Thomas' personal
story and his lawyers' defense strategy may prove unique. Looking at his fellow Iraq
veterans on the jury, Thomas, in an unsworn statement before the sentencing
deliberations, talked of the kind of experience they have in common: the
grief of seeing buddies killed in combat. After losing friends in
Fallouja, he said, he decided, "I'm getting cheated on life. This ain't
right." After he was freed,
reporters asked Thomas about the killing. He suggested that to truly
understand that night takes a special knowledge, the kind he and the jurors
possess. "I think anybody who
understands what war is, or what combat is, understands," he said. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-trial22jul22,1,3097764.story |