Haditha update: Key court ruling favors Marine charged in Iraqi shooting case

[unhappycamper]

Key court ruling favors Marine charged in Iraqi shooting case
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
Stars and Stripes online edition, Wednesday, March 24, 2010

SAN DIEGO — The defense for the last Marine facing criminal charges in the fatal shooting of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005 won a key ruling Tuesday that could lead to the case being dropped.

Lt. Col. David Jones, the military judge, ruled that attorneys for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich had successfully shown that there was the possibility of what the military calls undue command influence in the decision by a general to send Wuterich to a court-martial.

Jones' ruling requires that prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt that no such influence existed or that, while it may have existed, it did not influence the general's decision.

Faced with a similar ruling in the case of another Marine charged in the Haditha killings, prosecutors could not meet the burden of proof to the judge's satisfaction. After losing an appeal, the Marine Corps dismissed charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani.

Jones set a hearing for Wednesday to hear any evidence prosecutors want to present. Maj. Nicholas Gannon, one of the prosecutors, said he was "99.9 percent sure" that he has no further evidence.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=68869



unhappycamper update: This just astounds me. We kidnap people off the streets, transport them to countries where they are tortured, and insist that they not be tried in the United States legal system. Instead they will be tried by military commissions that allows information extracted by torture to be used against them.

I'm sure the Iraqis appreciate the 'rule of law' we profess to follow.

[Skittles]

1. question

where does your torture comment fit with this article? just asking

[unhappycamper]

2. The fact is the United States burst into a home in Haditha

and murdered 24 men, women, and children. And not one American will see any jail time, much the same as American torturers will most likely not see any jail time. I think both of these atrocities should be punished. We both swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Did you know that five Americans died in the 1770 Boston Massacre? Are Iraqis worth less than Americans? The American propaganda machine was cranked up to rouse the masses over five people and we kicked the British out of the colonies.