Posted on 02/15/2007 7:07:34 AM PST by RedRover
CAMP PENDLETON -- A Marine lance corporal who pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian wants extra days of credit awarded for the time he has been the base brig because of what his attorneys contend was illegal pretrial confinement.
The argument came Wednesday during the second day of a court-martial for Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, 22, a Seattle-area native.
Pennington pleaded guilty Tuesday to two of the five felonies he was charged with in the abduction and slaying of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the Iraqi village of Hamdania on April 26, 2006. In exchange for his pleas, prosecutors agreed to withdraw murder, larceny and housebreaking charges.
The military judge presiding over the case, Col. Steven Folsom, did not immediately rule on the request. Pennington is the fifth man from a 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment platoon to plead guilty in the case. The men who have pleaded guilty in negotiated deals with prosecutors received jail terms ranging from 12 to 21 months.
The case continues at 8:30 this morning with the defense expected to call witnesses in an attempt to mitigate their client's role in the incident.
Should be an interesting day in court.
If you weren't pinged, let jazusamo or me know if you want on the Hamdania Marine Ping List.
Not a chance, I'll bet that every bit of his paperwork has 'Temporarily Assigned Duty' to the Naval Brig.
He wasn't 'confined' to the brig, that was his 'duty station' (as far as the Navy/Marines were concerned).
I'm looking at it from a strictly 'Navy' point of view.
Understood. Wonder how the shackles would be justified in the paperwork?
The shackles would probably be considered as 'part of his uniform of the day.'
I'm not kidding, I spent 8 years in the Navy, and that's how they think!
As my old dad used to say, "screwed, blued, and tattooed."
Maybe this "illegal pre-trial confinement" has something to do with how they were held (shackles, etc.) before they were charged. I think they were brought back to Camp Pendleton in early May and were not charged until late in June. One would think there would be codes to follow regarding how an accused is confined, especially before charges are filed. CrawDaddyCA's comments makes it sound like the Navy has a lot of latitude in defining their status.
"The shackles would probably be considered as 'part of his uniform of the day.'" My what a lovely addition to their uniform ensemble.
People on the Right won't criticize it because it could be taken as criticism of the military itself.
People on the Left only take an interest when a particular case supports their anti-American agenda. (You'll notice the ACLU only cares about terrorists Gitmo.)
So the whole apparatus can seek devour, destroy, without a bit of outside scrutiny.
Sometimes it seems that only a handful of people even care about what's going on at Pendleton. We have to keep trying to change that.
So according to this article, they were confined to the max. from May 24 to June 16. I think charges were handed out to the Pendleton 8 on June 21.
It was, "screwed, BLEWED, and tattooed.
It referred to a night of revelry on shore leave amongst your buddies.
Thanks. Old dad never wrote it down!
Also, wonder why dad made it sound like a bad thing. Guess he regretted his tattoos...
Blued...hee hee that was funny shippy!
Here's a little more on the illegal detention from the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/14/marine_details_iraqi_kidnap_murder_plan/
"Pennington's military lawyers argued that some of his legal rights had been violated, and that he should be awarded extra credit for time served early on in his confinement.
Attorney David Brahms said that Pennington was not given a preliminary hearing quickly enough, and that the Marine's conditions of confinement were unnecessarily harsh. The squad was initially classified as potentially violent and were kept in shackles.
Military judge Col. Steven Folsom did not rule on the motion for extra credit for time served. "
That's a new one on me "potentially violent". Maybe that just means "hasn't been broken, yet".
Hush now. I was trying to keep it clean(er).
Here's some more info from Military Justice 101 on pre-trial confinement: http://usmilitary.about.com/library/weekly/aa102200a.htm
....."When his charges are "referred" or presented to a court-martial, the confined servicemember may ask the military judge presiding over the court to review his pretrial confinement again. If rules were violated, the military judge can release the servicemember, and he can reduce any subsequent sentence, giving additional credit for inappropriate confinement.
In most cases, imposing pretrial confinement "starts the clock." After imposing pretrial confinement, the command must usually bring the case to trial within 120 days, or risk having the case overturned on appeal.
...."
According to this last paragraph, the case should be brought to trial in 120 days. If the Pendleton 8 were confined, stateside, on May 24, then 120 days would be Sept. 1. Pennington was originally supposed to have a pre-trial hearing on Sept. 25 - don't know if this happened. His charges were referred to a general court martial on Oct. 17. I guess the 120 day rule doesn't count here?
That is just grotesque.
defendrob.com says
Update 11 December 2006
Today we received word the military judge has ruled against suppressing the illegally obtained NCIS statements and also ruled against releasing Rob from pre-trial confinement.
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