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My guess is that the prosecution strategy all along has been to convict Wuterich on one of the lesser charges so the media and the system could proclaim, "See, he was guilty." The lead headline out of the NC paper will be: "Haditha Marine Convicted Of ___________"

My understand is that there were orignally nine counts of voluntary manslaughter together with charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice. I understand the obstruction of justice was dropped.

The reckless endangerment or dereliction of duty would be what I'd guess the prosecution is hoping to pull off...one or the other. The most slippery would be the "dereliction of duty".

Agreed. The prosecution's only real hope may be an appeal to the jury to convict Wuterich of something to uphold the honor and good name of the Corps. I think dereliction is a stretch given the testimony so far but it's their best shot, as you say.

I said on another thread that the government has only released charges without specifications for the court martial. I put the charge sheet HERE with the original specifications.

Of course that's mixing the legal version of apples and oranges but it's the best we can do right now.