Charges dropped against Marine in Haditha case

AP ^ | 3/28/08 | AP

[paltz]

Charges against a US Marine allegedly involved in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha were dropped on Friday ahead of his trial, the military said in a statement.

A court martial for lance corporal Stephen Tatum had been due to start on Friday on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.

However in a statement released from the Marines Camp Pendleton base outside San Diego, the military said the charges had been dismissed "in order to continue to pursue the truth seeking process into the Haditha incident."

It was not immediately clear if fresh charges could be laid against Tatum at a later date or whether the soldier may now cooperate with prosecutors.

Tatum had been accused of shooting dead two unarmed children as Marines cleared houses near the scene of a deadly roadside bombing in Haditha, 260 kilometers west of Baghdad, on November 19, 2005.

The deaths were part of a grim civilian toll from the Marines' actions in Haditha. Four soldiers were initially charged with murder and four officers accused of staging a cover-up.

However, since charges against the soldiers were first announced in late 2006, prosecutors have struggled to make the allegations stick.

Four of the eight have had charges against them dropped, while charges of murder were replaced by the lesser offence of manslaughter in the cases of Tatum and his squad leader Sergeant Frank Wuterich.

The military investigator overseeing Tatum's pre-trial hearing had recommended all charges against the soldier be dismissed.

The killings in Haditha are the most serious allegations of war crimes leveled at US forces since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

[Red in Blue PA]

I can’t wait for Brian Willaims to report on this tonight.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Great news!
Any word from Mr. Murtha?

[donna]

What charges still remain?

[Digger]

Where’s Murtha?

[Slapshot68]

“Any word from Mr. Murtha?”

I’m sure he’s organizing a press conference to extend his apologies for calling our marines murderers. /s off

[VRWCmember]

Was Murtha deeply saddened?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Did the Shadow Tribnal approve this?

[HD1200]

I have called Murtha’s office serveral times as each Marine is exonerated asking when Murtha would be apologizing.

Each time his staff person says “Congressman Murtha has no intentions of apologizing to anybody over this”.

I have even offered up to them that my youngest son is a United States Marine and I want to know that Congressman would give them every benefit of the doubt in the future. This is always met by silence from the staff. Not only is Murtha a two bit scum, so is all his staff.

[DrBombbay]

Well he just picked up a fifth of Scotch at the packie,if thats any indication.

[NavyCanDo]

I have heard the parents of these Marines pleading on behalf of their fine sons on radio and on TV, and I am so happy that 4 of the 8 accused have had the charges dropped, and it is looking more and more like the charges won't stick on the other 4. We all need to keep our prayers up.

[savedbygrace]

IIRC, that’s 5 down, 3 to go. Only Wuterich, Chessani, and Grayson are still in jeopardy (assuming this releases Tatum completely.)

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

[NavyCanDo]

There going nuts over on the DU. I would warn those taking a peak, that the comments are not pretty, but it does display their true hatred for the military.

[Red in Blue PA]

That is disgusting.

[Red in Blue PA]

As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Anytime a leftist says they support the troops, read DU first.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3246808

The individual is human scum. Sure makes you proud to support the troops. We are now a nation of baby killers and torturers. I don’t think God is going to Bless America.

God Damn Amerika

[Vaduz]

Or from Juan MCnuts.

[chuckles]

I'm certainly no lawyer, but after charges are dropped, its difficult to bring the same ones again. If charges are reinstated, they usually, but not always, have to be “different” in some material way. If he was charged with murder, and they are dropped, it would usually change to manslaughter or something else. If the same charges are reinstated, it would be because some "new" evidence had been uncovered.

To actually drop the charges, they would have to feel the case was too flimsy to continue and would look incompetent to drop, then bring the charges again. Many cases have been lost over the over reaching of prosecutors. I'll bet if OJ would have been charged with 2nd degree murder or manslaughter, they would have got a conviction and he would be in jail today. The prosecutors felt they had a death penalty case so they went for it. They didn't count on vegetables qualifying for jurors.

[Clive]

From the article:
"It was not immediately clear if fresh charges could be laid against Tatum at a later date or whether the soldier may now cooperate with prosecutors."

See Reply 40 by RedRover in this thread:

Haditha Charges Against Tatum DROPPED (!!!!)

It appears that the charges were dropped "with prejudice", which means that they cannot be re-laid

[Mr. Lucky]

If the AP reporter doesn’t know the difference between a Marine and a Soldier, it’s a pretty good bet he doesn’t know what “dismissed with prejudice” means.