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THE GREEN BERET COURT MARTIAL Written by To The Point News Friday, 01 August 2008 US Army Green Beret James T. (Smokey) Taylor was awakened in the early morning hours of November 5, 2007, when an intruder broke into his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. He investigated the noises with one of his many weapons in the house. "It was just after Halloween, on Monday morning at 4:30," Taylor testified in his trial. "I heard this commotion at the door and grabbed my fishing gun, a little .22 revolver, to see what was going on. "I got to the front door...

(Published July 10, 2008) CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer hoped his battle experience in Fallujah and other Iraqi hot zones would pave the way to a job in the Secret Service. Instead, the 25-year-old is among three Marines charged with murdering unarmed captives in November 2004, during some of the heaviest house-to-house fighting of the Iraq war. ADVERTISEMENT Cracking the Code of Sexual Chemistry and Attraction Still Time to Slim Down for Summer More Scholarships for Working Moms Going Back to College Weemer is due in a Camp Pendleton courtroom Thursday for a daylong preliminary hearing, known...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Military prosecutors are expected to call as their witness General James N. Mattis, a highly respected Marine officer and one of only a handful of four-star Marine generals, to testify in the court-martial hearing against LtCol Jeffrey Chessani on June 2, 2008, at Camp Pendleton, California. http://www.thomasmore.org/qry/page.taf?id=63

BAGHDAD, May 29, 2008 – A contractor in Iraq charged under military law with stabbing another contractor was scheduled to be arraigned today in Baghdad. Alaa “Alex” Mohammad Ali, a contractor charged with aggravated assault, was scheduled to be arraigned today at Camp Victory here. The charge against Ali stems from the Feb. 23 alleged stabbing of another contractor at a combat outpost near Hit. This is the first time a civilian will be tried by court-martial under a 2006 amendment to the Uniform Code of Military Justice contained in the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, U.S. military officials said....

SAN DIEGO—A Marine intelligence officer heads to court Wednesday to answer charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements during an investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis. The court-martial of 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson is the first case to come to trial in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths to come out of the Iraq war. Authorities maintain eight Marines killed the Iraqis shortly after a roadside bomb hit a convoy, killing the driver of a Humvee and wounding two Marines. Grayson of Springboro, Ohio, was not present at the scene of the killings on Nov....

Two Marine officers in a unit that was accused of killing as many as 19 Afghan civilians in 2007 will not face criminal charges, the military said Friday. Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, the commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central Command, made the decision not to bring charges after reviewing the findings of a special tribunal that heard more than three weeks of testimony in January at Camp Lejuene. The tribunal investigated allegations that as many as 19 Afghan civilians died when a unit of Lejeune-based Marine special operations troops opened fire after a car bomb targeted their convoy on...

Three days after Memorial Day, the Marine Corps will court-martial the officer personally responsible for capturing the Al Qaeda terrorist who organized the ambush that triggered the so-called “Haditha Massacre”. On Wednesday, May 28, 1st Lieutenant Andrew Grayson will stand general court-martial for obstruction of justice and lying to investigators about the events at Haditha and attempting to obtain a fraudulent discharge from the Marine Corps. Last September the government dismissed two counts of dereliction of duty against Grayson. Two weeks ago military judge Maj. Brian Kasperczyk set the stage for Grayson’s court-martial during a final motion hearing at Camp...

The court-martial of the highest ranking Marine Corps officer accused of crimes in the infamous incident at Haditha, Iraq will face further delays if the Military Court of Appeals grants motions filed there by his defense team today. The Thomas More Law Center that represents Lt. Col Jeffrey Chessani announced today that it has filed a “Petition for Extraordinary Relief” with the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington, D.C on his behalf. The petition asks the military appellate court to reverse the judge’s order denying the defense counsel’s request for evidence it deems essential to his...

FORT HOOD, Texas - A military jury Thursday acquitted an Army sergeant of premeditated murder in the death of an unarmed Iraqi insurgent who was killed in a village overrun by al-Qaida operatives. The family of Sgt. Leonardo Trevino gasped, clapped and sobbed after the verdict in his court-martial was read. The 31-year-old from San Antonio also was cleared on charges of attempted murder, solicitation to commit murder and three counts of obstruction of justice. Trevino said he felt betrayed by the soldiers who testified against him but that he held no ill will toward the Army.

A court-martial panel on Friday found a Hawaii-based soldier not guilty in the killing of an unarmed Iraqi during a raid on a suspected insurgent hideout last year. Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales' friends and family erupted in cheers when the head of the military panel, or jury, read the verdict. The jury of nine soldiers acquitted Corrales of all three charges, including premeditated murder, after more than seven hours of deliberation. Corrales would have faced a minimum sentence of life in prison if he had been convicted. Corrales said it feels like a 200-pound weight had been lifted from...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Amid the flurry of arguments in the hearing on several motions earlier in the month, comments by military judge, Colonel Stephen Folsom, USMC, has shed some light on how he will conduct the trial of Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani. According to the judge, it makes no difference whether the Marines in LtCol Chessani’s battalion did or did not kill civilians in cold blood – the issue for the jury will be whether LtCol Chessani should have reasonably suspected his Marines killed civilians in cold blood. “The judge’s theory introduces coherence to the trial. It will...

WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii (AP) — A court-martial panel on Friday found a Hawaii-based soldier not guilty in the killing of an unarmed Iraqi during a raid on a suspected insurgent hideout last year. Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales' friends and family erupted in cheers when the head of the military panel, or jury, read the verdict. The jury of nine soldiers acquitted Corrales of all three charges, including premeditated murder, after more than seven hours of deliberation. Corrales would have faced a minimum sentence of life in prison if he had been convicted. Corrales said it feels like a...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The Marine Corps dropped its case and gave full immunity Friday to a serviceman who was accused of involuntary manslaughter in a squad's killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in 2005. The case against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, 26, of Edmond, Okla., was dropped as jury selection was about to begin for his court-martial. The government has been seeking Tatum's testimony against the squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich of Meriden, Conn. In addition to two counts of involuntary manslaughter, Tatum had been charged with reckless endangerment and aggravated assault. Tatum's attorney, Jack Zimmerman, said there...

SAN DIEGO -- A Camp Pendleton Marine has been charged with murder and dereliction of duty for his alleged role three years ago in the killing of a detainee in Fallujah, Iraq. Sgt. Ryan Weemer on Tuesday became the third person charged in the case that centers on allegations that a Marine squad shot a group of unarmed captives during heavy fighting in November 2004. The case came to light when the 25-year-old Weemer applied for a job with the Secret Service. Investigators claim Weemer described the killing during a polygraph test that included a question about whether he had...

We're on your side with information about Courtney Lockhart's military career. News Three has confirmed that Courtney Lockhart spent time as a soldier in Iraq. This afternoon News Three spoke with a U.S. Army spokesperson from the Pentagon, and we have a timeline for you of Courtney Lockhart's military career. Courtney Lockhart graduated from Smith's Station High School in the spring of 2003. A few months later, Lockhart began his basic training with the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Carson Colorado. He was deployed to Iraq and served there from August 2004 until July 2005. While in Iraq, Lockhart received...

ANN ARBOR, MI – “Military Judge Colonel Stephen Folsom’s, USMC, ruling yesterday refusing our request to take the deposition of Congressman John Murtha, D-PA, is the latest indication that it will be impossible for Marine Lt. Colonel Chessani to get a fair trial regarding November 19, 2005, Haditha incident,� said Richard Thompson, Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, the Ann Arbor, Michigan based public interest law firm defending Lt. Col. Chessani. “This entire prosecution is politically motivated and stinks to high heaven. Denying us the right to take Murtha’s deposition so that we could show undue command...

SAN DIEGO -- A military prosecutor is appealing a judge's decision to throw out a subpoena for unaired footage of a "60 Minutes" interview given by a Marine squad leader charged in the killings of 24 Iraqis. The appeal prompted the indefinite postponement of Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich's court-martial, which was scheduled to begin March 10, Wuterich's attorney, Mark Zaid, told The Associated Press on Friday. Marine prosecutor Capt. Nicholas Gannon has said in court documents the unaired CBS footage is vital to the case because it contains admissions by Wuterich of crimes in the attack in Haditha, Iraq,...

CAMP PENDLETON -- A jury that includes several combat veterans will gather in a courtroom here one week from Monday to hear the first case against four Marines being prosecuted in the slaying of two dozen Iraqi civilians more than two years ago. The court-martial of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will offer dramatically competing versions of what happened in the city of Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, and the outcome could set the tone for subsequent courts-martial of the three other Marines. The prosecutions are themselves controversial, drawing scorn from active-duty Marines and retired veterans, as well as global attention....

CAMP PENDLETON -- The Marine Corps has ordered one of two men charged with manslaughter in the 2005 deaths of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha to testify for the prosecution at the court-martial for a co-defendant. Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum has been ordered to appear at the trial of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, which is scheduled to start in less than three weeks, and tell the jury his version of the events of Nov. 19, 2005. Tatum's attorney Jack Zimmerman said he was caught by surprise when served with the order. "We were sent a copy of...

The PC Free Zone is reporting that an 80-year-old retired Green Beret has been tried by his peers after shooting an intruder in his Knoxville, Tennessee home. He is the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association. BREVARD, Jan. 19, 2008 Retired Army Green Beret Smokey Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling good about it. Taylor, at age 80 the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association, was on trial by his peers under the charge of failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber in the shooting of...

BREVARD, Jan. 19, 2008 - Retired Army Green Beret James T. (Smokey) Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling pretty good about it. Taylor, at age 79, is one of the oldest members of Chapter XXXIII (The Larry Thorne Chapter) of the Special Forces Association.He was placed on trial by fellow Chapter XXXIII members under the charge of “failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber” in the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville , TN , in November. The court martial, of course, was very much tongue in cheek. The event itself...

The court martial for SSgt Frank Wuterich, USMC, has been scheduled for March 3-14, Defend Our Marines has learned. The court martial for a second enlisted man, LCpl Stephen Tatum, is scheduled to commence March 28. The battalion commander, LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, will go on trial on April 28. A fourth court martial, for Lt Andrew Grayson, has not yet been scheduled. Before SSgt Wuterich's trial commences, there will be two sessions for arguments on motions on February 13-15, 2008, and then on February 20-22, 2008. Attorney Mark Zaid says, "We expect a very lively pre-trial environment as several very...

Springboro High School graduate and Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson will face a court-martial on charges related to the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005, the Marine Corps announced Monday. Grayson, 26, will stand trial on charges of making false official statements, obstruction of justice and attempting to fraudulently obtain his discharge last summer. Grayson was not present during the Nov. 19, 2005 incident in which four Marines allegedly killed 24 Iraqi citizens with grenades and gunfire after a roadside bomb hit a Marine convoy, killing the driver and wounding two other Marines. Grayson, an intelligence officer,...

1st Lieutenant Andrew Grayson will face courts-martial for his alleged role in the incident at Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005. Grayson is the third Marine and second officer that is being sent to general court-martial at Camp Pendleton, California. The prosecution in the case is expected to level more criminal charges – including allegations Grayson attempted to fraudulently obtain his discharge from active duty early last summer. On June 13th, Joseph Casas, Grayson’s California-based civilian attorney and a former prosecutor for the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, announced that Lt. Grayson had been discharged on June 1, 2007 and...

SAN DIEGO -- A military jury on Thursday sentenced a Marine drill instructor to six months in the brig and gave him a bad-conduct discharge for abusing 23 recruits. The instructor, Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass, also received a reduction in rank to private and pay forfeiture. He had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years of confinement, dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank, and forfeiture of pay and benefits. Former colleagues lined up to hug Glass and shake his hand after the verdict was read. Glass, 25, hugged his parents. Earlier, the prosecutors recommended he spend two years in the brig...

For America's combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan � especially sniper teams � a disturbing yet totally unnecessary shadow has been cast over them by tactically and legally ignorant commanders and their lawyers. The end result is our young warriors' persistent exposure to criminal liability for the perceived "crime" of killing the enemy. While tragic for our warriors as individuals, this trend is a dangerous catastrophe on the strategic level. Never before has America sent it's young to war with the untenable burden of being judged in the clear vision of 20-20 hindsight over the manner by which they carry...

<p>A U.S. District Court judge today granted a preliminary injunction that bars the Army from proceeding with a second court-martial trial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first Army officer to face prison for refusing to deploy to Iraq.</p> <p>Watada's court-martial in February ended in a mistrial, and his attorneys have claimed that Fifth Amendment constitutional protections prevent Watada from being tried twice for the same crime.</p>

CAMP PENDLETON – In the months before Marine Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes fatally stabbed an Iraqi soldier in their sentry outpost, military doctors were treating him with drugs for anxiety and insomnia, his attorneys said this week. Prosecutors have charged Holmes with murdering Mutather Jasem Muhammed Hassin on Dec. 31 in Fallujah. Holmes cut and stabbed Hassin 40 times with his combat knife, with some of the wounds piercing the victim's spine. The revelations come about a month before the start of Holmes' court-martial at Camp Pendleton. They provide further evidence that defense lawyers, as part of their overall court...

Two Marines were ordered Friday to face courts-martial for their roles in the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani faces charges of dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order for allegedly failing to accurately report and investigate the Nov. 19, 2005, killings of 24 Iraqis. Chessani is the most senior U.S. serviceman since the Vietnam War to face a court-martial for actions or decisions made in combat, said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center. Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum faces...

 The remains of a wooden vessel are visible at low tide in the Sedgeunkedunk Stream which flows into the Penobscot River in Brewer near the future Cianbro module project site. The remains are rumored to be from a scuttled vessel involved in the Penobscot Expedition during the Revolutionary War. (Bangor Daily News/Bridget Brown) Buy this photo A shovel operator from Dravo Co. in Pittsburgh got quite a surprise one afternoon in 1953 while digging the Penobscot River bottom to construct a new bridge. In the scoop in his machine, he discovered an old cannon, 5 feet, 4 inches long, with a...

Posted on: Friday, October 5, 2007 2:54 PM HST Judge blocks Watada's court-martial Associated Press TACOMA, Wash. >> A federal court judge has temporarily blocked a court-martial scheduled for an Iraq war objector based at Fort Lewis. The court-martial of Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada of Hawaii had been scheduled to start Tuesday. Watada’s lawyers argue the Army is violating his constitutional rights by trying him twice for the same crime. Watada is charged with missing his unit’s deployment to Iraq in June 2006 and with conduct unbecoming an officer for denouncing President Bush and the war. U.S. District Judge...

BAGHDAD - A military panel on Saturday sentenced an Army sniper to five months in prison, a reduction in rank and forfeiture of pay for planting evidence in connection with the deaths of two Iraqi civilians.

BAGHDAD - A military panel Friday acquitted U.S. Army Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval on charges he killed two unarmed Iraqis, but it convicted him of planting evidence on one of the men in attempt to cover up the shooting. Sandoval, 22, of Laredo, Texas, had faced five charges in the April and May deaths of two unidentified men. He was found not guilty of the two murder charges, but the panel decided he had placed a detonation wire on one of the bodies to make it look as if the man was an insurgent.

Spec. Jorge Sandoval lay face down in the foot-high grass, staring through his sniper rifle scope at the Iraqi man holding a rusted sickle. The man had crouched down, only his head was visible. Sandoval's spotter, Staff. Sgt. Michael Hensley, relayed the order to kill. On April 27, in dangerous terrain south of Baghdad, Sandoval pulled the trigger to fire a bullet hundreds of yards into the man's skull, killing him instantly. Moments earlier, the man, according to testimony and court documents, had been fleeing an attack on U.S. soldiers and was holding the sickle to masquerade as a farmer....

Chaplain sentenced after harassing mistress By Vince Little, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Saturday, September 22, 2007 CAMP ZAMA, Japan — A married Army chaplain who was involved in an affair with an Arizona woman pleaded guilty Thursday to adultery, unbecoming conduct and four counts of cyberstalking at his court-martial. Capt. Mike Myers was sentenced to six months in prison after entering his plea in the courtroom of this Army post near Tokyo. The former chaplain for the 441st Military Intelligence Battalion, 500th Military Intelligence Brigade also will be dismissed from the Army and receive a reprimand stemming from his...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Sept. 17 — From his position about 100 yards away, Master Sgt. Troy Anderson had a clear shot at the Afghan man standing outside a residential compound in a village near the Pakistan border last October. When Capt. Dave Staffel, the Special Forces officer in charge, gave the order to shoot, Sergeant Anderson fired a bullet into the man’s head, killing him. In June, Captain Staffel and Sergeant Anderson were charged with premeditated murder. On Tuesday, in a rare public examination of the rules that govern the actions of Special Operations troops in Afghanistan, a military hearing...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Charges have been dropped against a captain who was accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, the Marine Corps said Tuesday. Capt. Lucas M. McConnell of Napa was granted immunity and ordered to cooperate with officials looking into the November 2005 killings, the Marines said in a press release. Charges have now been dismissed against four of the eight Marines who were initially charged with murder or failure to investigate the deaths. A battalion commander has been recommended for a court-martial; a final decision is pending. The...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Sept. 18, 2007) – Charges against Capt. Lucas M. McConnell stemming from the command response to the death of Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq on Nov. 19, 2005, were dismissed on Sept. 12, 2007. A Grant of Immunity and Order to Cooperate with All Parties were issued to McConnell in order to further the fact finding process into the incident. McConnell was charged Dec. 21, 2006 with dereliction of duty for allegedly failing to ensure the incident was reported accurately to higher headquarters and for failing to ensure the incident was immediately investigated. McConnell was the Commanding...

<p>Lieutenant Colonel Colby C. Vokey has been fired as Regional Defense Council for West Coast Marines for reportedly assigning too many defense attorneys to the Haditha and Hamandiyah defendants. Vokey was one of three regional defense attorneys charged by the Marine Corps with supervising the defense teams within the various commands of the Marine Corps. He is currently defending Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich against 17 charges of unpremeditated murder at Haditha, Iraq.</p>

Camp Pendleton -- A sergeant granted immunity from prosecution for allegedly murdering five Iraqi men in Haditha crumbled under hard questioning by a Marine Corps lawyer in the second day of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich's Article 32 hearing. Wuterich, 27, from Meriden, Connecticut is accused of murdering 17 Iraqi civilians following the ambush of his squad on November 19, 2005. During the daylong fight, 24 Iraqis were killed by Marines, dueling with several groups of insurgents hiding among the civilians cowering in their homes. When the fighting ended eight insurgents had been killed and at least two others were captured...

FORT MEADE, Md. - A military court Tuesday acquitted an Army officer of failing to control U.S. soldiers who abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but it found him guilty of disobeying an order not to discuss the abuse investigation. Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan was the only officer and the last of 12 defendants to go to trial in the 2003 Abu Ghraib scandal, which embarrassed the Pentagon and shocked the Muslim world. The allegations at the U.S.-run prison came to light with the release of pictures of U.S. soldiers smiling while detainees, some of them naked,...

HONOLULU, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Several U.S. Army soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq last week were to be witnesses in the homicide trial of their former superior. Honolulu's KITV reported Sunday that some of the soldiers who died in the crash had been scheduled to testify in the trial of Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales, who is accused of orchestrating the death of an Iraqi detainee this year. Corrales, who was in the same Hawaii-based platoon as the soldiers killed in Wednesday's crash, allegedly shot the detainee repeatedly June 23. He is accused of then ordering his...

An investigating officer has recommended that a Marine Corps general drop all charges against a Marine accused of murdering civilians in Haditha, Iraq, finding again that the 2005 shootings were "tragedies" but that the Marine did not violate the laws of combat. Lt. Col. Paul J. Ware wrote in a 29-page report that there is insufficient evidence to show that Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum did anything other than follow Marine Corps rules when he killed women and children in two houses in a residential neighborhood in Iraq on Nov. 19, 2005. Ware found that Tatum followed orders to attack...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- The Marine Corps announced Monday it has charged a sergeant with unpremeditated murder for the killing of an Iraqi detainee in Fallujah in 2004. Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson is the second person charged in the case in which four detainees were killed. The incident was first reported in the North County Times in late June. A Marine Corps spokesman stressed that Nelson is considered innocent until findings show otherwise, adding that leadership at Camp Pendleton is committed to fully investigating alleged acts of wrongdoing in Iraq. "Our message is to tell the citizens of the United States...

Soldier cleared of murder in civilian court 18 years ago to face court-martial in the deaths By: MIKE BAKER - Associated PressRALEIGH, N.C. -- A soldier cleared of a triple murder in civilian court 18 years ago will face a military court-martial for the same crimes, an Army general ordered Friday. The Army will try Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis on three counts of premeditated murder in the May 1985 deaths of Kathryn Eastburn, 31, and two of her daughters -- Kara Sue, 5, and Erin Nicole, 3. Hennis was convicted and sentenced to death for the crimes in 1986,...

NORTH COUNTY ---- Jury decisions and a powerful general's grants of clemency have signaled that Marines may be reluctant to jail service members accused of war crimes in Iraq. Few saw it coming when the military justice system granted freedom to most of the eight Camp Pendleton troops who admitted to kidnapping and killing an Iraqi man in Hamdania last year. Former Marine prosecutor Thad Coakley was among those caught off guard. "The sentences were well below what is expected for the guilty findings for a group that decide to kidnap and execute a guy," said Coakley, who has extensive...

By Rick Rogers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER August 15, 2007 CAMP PENDLETON – Tens of thousands of American and Iraqi troops serve together daily, but last December a dispute while on duty led to a Marine reservist stabbing an Iraqi soldier to death as the two stood watch in Anbar province. Now Lance Cpl. Delano V. Holmes, 21, is accused of killing Mutather Jasem Muhammed Hassin inside a tiny observation post in Fallujah, according to charges filed by the Marine Corps. Holmes, an Indianapolis resident who was on his first deployment, was arraigned July 31 and is scheduled for court-martial at...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Marine reservist from Indiana has been charged with murdering an Iraqi army soldier in Fallujah, an attorney said Tuesday. Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, 21, of Indianapolis, is accused of stabbing Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin to death as the two men stood watch at a security post on Dec. 31, 2006, Holmes' lawyer said. The struggle began in the pre-dawn darkness after Hassin allegedly opened his cell phone then lit a cigarette at the post, attorney Steve Cook said. The men were not supposed to display any illuminated objects because of the threat of sniper fire, and Holmes...

Aug-09-2007 05:40 Advocates Call Iraq Marine's Court Martial and Conviction Into Question Tim King Salem-News.comFormer Marines investigating the case say there is far more than meets the eye; the court martial is currently under appeal and review. Photo of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins with his lawyerCourtesy: DoD (SALEM, Ore.) - A Marine convicted for murder in Iraq is receiving increasing public support by those who believe he is not guilty. Marine Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins has been sentenced to 15-years for the killings in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq. Friends say Hutchins is innocent Advocates say a number of the government's...

Corps clears Canonsburg Marine the killing of 3 Iraqi civilians A Canonsburg native did his best to live up to the Marine Corps' standards when he killed three Iraqis during a house search in Haditha, Lt. Gen. James Mattis said Thursday in dropping charges against him. Mattis dropped all charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 22, one of four enlisted Marines charged with murder for killing Iraqi civilians following the Nov. 19, 2005, ambush of a Marine convoy in Haditha. The Marine commander dropped charges against another Marine in return for his testimony, and dropped charges against one of...