Posted on 03/23/2010 5:43:45 PM PDT by jazusamo
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% sure" that he has no further evidence.
During the two-day hearing at Camp Pendleton,Gen. James Mattis and retired Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland testified that their decisions to charge Wuterich were not improperly influenced. Jones promised to issue his ruling Friday afternoon.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Wow!
prayers up for Frank.
Great, great news!
ping
You said it better than I. :-)
Prayers up for Frank!
please put this in breaking news!!!
Thanks, Race!
Thanks for the update!
It’s obscene that the Sgt. was even charged in this matter. I pray that there is a clean sweep, and that he is exonerated along with the others already cleared
This is absolutely wonderful news! The quick action and decision of Lt.Col. Jones is very encouraging.
Once the well was poisoned by UCI or even it’s appearance, any other decision would have been destructive to military justice and very harmful to the USMC. Judge Jones has signaled he will have none of it.
Exactly! The speed at which Lt. Col. Jones acted is a sign that he fully understands when UCI has been shown it can’t be undone.
This is what we’ve all been looking for, hopefully the remainder will work out the Same as Lt. Col. Chassani’s case did.
Awesome news!
It will be hard to rule that this is not UCI in Wuterich’s case but was in Chessani’s case, when it is the exact same incident.
Would the precedent of the other judge’s rulings, and the appeals courts upholding of that ruling be admissible in this hearing?
You likely do not know this...I wrote a screenplay on the Haditha incident that was based on interviews with accused Marines and a deep look at NCIS files and transcripts. It is titled HONOR.
Thank you for doing that and for letting me know.
The burden of proof has shifted to the Govt to show there was no UCI. Persecution is arguing there was no UCI because it was Helland not Mattis who referred the Haditha charges against Frank. Defense is arguing that the CA may have changed from Mattis to Hellend but the foundation of UCI was still there because it was the same players (Ewers & Riggs).
Prayers UP that this will all be over for Frank on Friday!
...won a key ruling Tuesday that could lead to the case being dropped.Bravo!
Amen to that.
Lt. Col. Jones isn’t buying the persecutions theory of no UCI and I don’t believe they can prove to him beyond a reasonable doubt there is. Great news.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200780,00.html
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