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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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April 23rd,
2010 - Dismissed Murder Conviction Setback for Military News article from the Associated
Press |
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Dismissed Murder Conviction Setback
for Military By Julie Watson Associated Press April 23, 2010 San Diego - The overturning
of a Marine's murder conviction on a judicial mistake is a stinging setback
for the government and comes after a string of defeats in its prosecution of
U.S. troops accused of killing unarmed Iraqis. The case of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins
III represented one of the most significant murder convictions for the U.S.
military and was among the biggest criminal cases to come out of the war. But
a military appeals court dismissed that conviction Thursday because a
military judge agreed to relinquish one of the lead defense attorneys for
Hutchins before his 2007 court-martial. The government has to decide
within 30 days whether to appeal or seek a new trial or the Camp Pendleton
Marine will go free. Prosecutors say Hutchins led
a squad of six other Marines and a Navy corpsman that dragged a 52-year-old
man from his home in the Iraqi village of Hamdania in 2006, put him in a
ditch and shot him, then planted a shovel and AK-47 to make it appear as if he
were an insurgent planting an explosive. Hutchins was sentenced to 11 years. The case was particularly
troubling because it demonstrated a serious breakdown in Marine Corps
leadership and tied it to murder, said Lt. Col. Paul Hackett, a judge
advocate in the Marine Corps reserve. Hamdania was among three top
Iraqi war crimes cases the government has tried to prosecute in recent years. The other two highly visible
Iraqi war crimes cases involved unarmed people killed while Marines under
attack were defending themselves. "As an active reservist
speaking to my peers, Hamdania is viewed as a very bad page in the Marine
Corps," Hackett said, adding that: "What's really troubling about
Hamdania is that there were multiple admissions to the general set of circumstances
that spelled out an unlawful killing." While the reason the U.S.
Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the conviction may seem
"hyper technical," Hackett said it also shows the military justice
system is working by adhering strictly to the rules of law. "A trial judge erred,
they may have to try it again, and that's a real problem, but that is also a
testament to the fortitude and competency of the Navy-Marine Court of
Appeals," he added. Hutchins' appellate defense
counsel, Marine Capt. S. Babu Kaza, said the court determined the error
denied Hutchins a fair trial by relinquishing a highly respected military
attorney who had spent three years on the case and had knowledge that was
critical to the outcome, which would have proven his innocence. "As a matter of law,
they have no basis to appeal," Kaza said. He said Hutchins already was
found not guilty of breaking into the home of Hashim Ibrahim Awad or
kidnapping him because he was not with the squad, which radioed Hutchins to tell
him they had shot a man they believed to be an insurgent leader, Kaza said.
Hutchins, he said, learned of the mistake after the investigation. Hutchins, 26, has spent
nearly four years in prison. The others in his squad served less than 18
months in jail. In another top case, eight
Marines were initially charged with murder or failure to investigate the
killings of 24 Iraqis that occurred after a roadside bombing that killed a
Marine. Six have had charges dropped or dismissed, and one was acquitted. Marine Staff Sgt. Frank
Wuterich, the squad leader, is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 13 on reduced
charges of voluntary manslaughter in nine of the 24 deaths and other crimes
in the November 2005 shootings in the town of Haditha. Last year, a Marine accused
of killing an unarmed Iraqi detainee during a 2004 battle to recapture the
city of Fallujah pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty after the government
dropped a murder charge as part of a plea agreement. The other two defendants
were acquitted, one by a military jury and the other by a civilian court
after he completed his military obligations and was beyond the reach of a
court-martial. While civilian court cases
hit similar snags, experts say war cases are challenging because there are
often no independent witnesses or autopsies. "We go to war to kill
the enemy, and there are terms and guidelines on what is a lawful killing and
what is an unlawful killing, and then there is a gray area," Hackett
said. "It's an extraordinarily complex area to define because it
ultimately relies on subjective circumstantial evaluation of a Marine in a
very difficult situation." What's more, problematic troops
are often given administrative discharges instead of sent to court-martial.
As a result, charges have sometimes been dismissed on procedural errors
because military lawyers lack the experience of these kinds of contested
trials, said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who
teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center. Military trial judges make
mistakes just as civilian judges do. "You would hope in
cases like this, the Marine Corps would cross its legal Ts and dot its legal
Is, but you know sometimes that doesn't happen," he said. Copyright © 2010 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hAKPf49Q9s7SaG_xk_hZ15Du-xUgD9F92GE80 From North County Times April 23, 2010 A Camp Pendleton Marine
whose conviction for the 2006 slaying of an Iraqi civilian was thrown out by
a military appeals court this week will remain in a Kansas prison while
government prosecutors decide if they will challenge the ruling. Pvt. Larry Hutchins is being
held at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth where he was sent
following his 2007 conviction by a military jury. Hutchins' conviction and
11-year sentence was overturned by the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of
Appeals, which ruled Thursday that one of his defense attorneys was
improperly dismissed from the case shortly before trial. Lt. Col. David Griesmer, a
Marine Corps spokesman, said Friday that Hutchins will stay confined while
the Navy's Office of the Judge Advocate General in Washington decides if an
appeal will be filed. Prosecutors have 30 days to make that decision. The Navy also has the option
of ordering the case returned to Camp Pendleton for a new trial. It was not
immediately clear if Hutchins would be released from custody if that step is
taken. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/article_c550cce9-380b-504e-a3bf-4d26baa2de23.html |