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A major Iraq War crimes case was upended Wednesday when the military's highest court tossed the conviction of a former Camp Pendleton Marine accused of murdering an unarmed man in Hamdaniya, Iraq in 2006. Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, the former squad leader of the "Pendleton 8" as supporters in San Diego called them, was convicted in 2007 and is serving an 11-year sentence in the brig at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The military accused Hutchins of being the ringleader in a plot to capture and kill a suspected insurgent at the height of the war. When they couldn’t find...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine sentenced to 11 years in prison for the 2006 killing of an unarmed Iraqi in Hamdaniyah will be retried later this month after his conviction was thrown out because a confession was obtained after he had been improperly denied a lawyer. But the civilian lawyer of the Marine, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, argued in a hearing Thursday that he should first get a new Article 32 hearing because the confession was the centerpiece of the government’s case against him. Hutchins was convicted of unpremeditated murder in 2007 for the death of the unarmed...

A Camp Pendleton Marine freed on appeal after serving more than six years for the murder of an unarmed man in Hamdaniya, Iraq, during the height of the war will be retried in a military court. Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III will be arraigned Wednesday at Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Forces Central Command said Monday. During a subsequent court martial, whose date has not been set, Hutchins will face charges of murder, obstruction of justice, making false official statements and conspiracy to commit larceny. The Hamdaniya killing had provoked outrage in the United States and Iraq, coming on the heels of...

OCEANSIDE — While her Marine husband was in prison at Fort Leavenworth for killing an unarmed Iraqi, Reyna Hutchins got a call from the FBI: her name was on a "hit list" of a suspected American terrorist, an Al Qaeda sympathizer. "As much as they tried to reassure me that I was safe, I was still scared," she said. She worried each time she started her car that a bomb might be attached. She kept her curtains closed, fearing that she would become a target of a sniper. When she ventured out, she was constantly looking over her shoulder. "I...

A military appeals court has reversed a decision that threw out the murder conviction and 11-year prison sentence for a Camp Pendleton Marine found guilty in the 2006 abduction and slaying of an Iraqi civilian. The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces directs the lower U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals to re-examine the appeal of Sgt. Larry Hutchins III, who was convicted by a military jury at Camp Pendleton in 2007. Last year, the Navy-Marine Corps Court in Washington dismissed the conviction stemming from one of the largest war crime cases after finding Hutchins...

Two Camp Pendleton Marines charged with war crimes in Iraq should see resolution of their long-fought cases in 2011. The cases, both of which involved the slaying of civilians, spurred far-reaching changes on the battlefield ---- changes some troops complain have hindered their ability to protect themselves and each other. ~snip~ "The acts of a single Marine can have profound consequences that reverberate around the world in real times," said Gary Solis, a military law expert and former Marine Corps attorney and judge. "But as long as we put weapons in the hands of 19-, 20-, and 21-year-olds, somewhere, sometime,...

MILITARY: Father's Day special for Hamdania Marine Sgt. Larry Hutchins spends first Father's Day with 5-year-old daughter By MARK WALKER - mlwalker@nctimes.com | Posted: Sunday, June 20, 2010 6:02 pm Larry Hutchins III spent Sunday like many fathers, relaxing and surrounded by members of his family. But for the Camp Pendleton Marine at the center of a 2006 slaying of an Iraqi civilian, it was a Father's Day unlike any he has known. It was his first with his 5-year-old daughter, Kylie. "It's awesome," Hutchins said as he sat with his right arm tightly wrapped around his only child. "It's...

A military appeals court on Thursday overturned the murder conviction of a Camp Pendleton Marine who had been found guilty of leading his squad in the 2006 kidnapping and slaying of an Iraqi man in the village of Hamdania. The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals said Thursday that it made the ruling because an attorney for Sgt. Larry Hutchins' was improperly dismissed prior to the man's 2007 trial. That act alone is sufficient to set aside Hutchins' conviction for the April 2006 incident and erase his 11-year prison sentence, the nine-member court found. "I'm just so happy," said Hutchins'...

A documentary film chronicling a Camp Pendleton squad convicted in the 2006 kidnapping and killing of an Iraqi man debuts in New York this week and will be screened in Oceanside next month. "Article 32" was produced primarily by Don Sikorski, who began working on the project two years ago, after the seven Marines and a Navy medical corpsman were prosecuted for the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a retired Iraqi policeman and father of 11. The 65-minute film tells the story of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment Kilo Company squad initially charged with capital murder. After several plea...

Blogger Walt Fitzpatrick, known as The Jaghunter, was visited by SECRET SERVICE for levying a threat against President Barak Obama based on his most recent column found here: http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/

A former Marine sergeant convicted of leading his "Pendleton 8" squad in the kidnapping and slaying of an Iraqi man will have his case heard by the Naval Clemency and Parole Board during a hearing in Washington on Wednesday. Pvt. Lawrence Hutchins III is serving an 11-year term for the April 2006 killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the Iraqi village of Hamdania. He is at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. A military jury found Hutchins guilty of murder in August 2007 and sentenced him to 15 years in prison and a reduction in rank to private. Prosecutors...

JAG HUNTER HERE: (POSTING FROM THE SWEETWATER, TENNESSEE LIBRARY) STEELE'S MARCH (PART V - CONCLUSION) PART I - PART II - PART III - PART IV "So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle,stricken with a dart, Said when he saw the fashion of the shaft, With our own feathers, not by others' hand, Are we now smitten. ' " -Aeschylus Exercising the power of clarity--putting ordnance on target--let's make clear the chaos of the treasonable motives threaded throughout the political power play narrated in this series.Peter W. Chiarelli plays the role of General Courtney...

Dec-02-2008 19:46 First Military Execution in 50 Years Delayed Tim King Salem-News.com Veterans advocates say the man's execution based on a signature from President Bush is illegal, and now the courts will take a closer look. Private Ronald Gray (SALEM, Ore.) - The first scheduled execution of an Army soldier since 1961 has been delayed, following a decision from a U.S. district court judge who granted a stay in the execution of Pvt. Ronald A. Gray. We reported on November 23rd 2008, that in spite of the horrific crimes Gray is convicted of committing, his execution based on a signature...

(CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.) - We pick up now where we left off in the timeline of events surrounding the incident that put far too many Marines in prison for killing the enemy. If you didn’t see Part 1 yesterday, you can find it here: Pendleton 8 Exposed - The Real Story, Part 1 January 18, 2007: Marine Pleads Guilty to Iraqi Kidnap, Murder “The Marine said ‘Someone’ fired a shot,” and then he and the others in the squad opened fire. Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III went up to the victim to make sure he was dead, [Cpl Trent] Thomas...

(CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.) - Two years ago the nation was shocked to hear of Marines coming home from the battlefield in shackles. This is not how we treat our heroes, not when they are highly decorated, highly trained, and even more experienced. It was preposterous, we said, to charge Marines with murder for shooting the enemy. Isn’t that what we train them to do? Marine Sergeant Hutchins"Yet that is exactly what we did–and the seven Marines, together with their Navy corpsman, became known as the Pendleton 8. For the last two years, these men have seen their families disintegrate, their...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A former Marine sergeant who headed a squad charged with murdering an Iraqi civilian in 2006 is being transferred from the Camp Pendleton brig to a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The transfer of now-Pvt. Larry Hutchins III comes six weeks after his 15-year sentence for murder, conspiracy, larceny and false official statements was reduced to 11 years by a general overseeing the case. The imminent move was confirmed Thursday by Lt. Curtis Williamson, a public affairs officer with the 1st Marine Division, who said security policy prevented him from citing the exact day of the...

A retired Marine officer has denied charges that he spoke with Hutchins case convening authority Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland regarding the disposition of Sgt Larry Hutchins. In an email to me that was copied to several other parties, Major Herbert W. (Bill) Donahue, Jr., vehemently denied any involvement with Gen. Helland, and threatened legal action against me for “libel/slander and defamation of character.” Donahue did not stop there, however, and went on to accuse me of “impugning the integrity of several ethical attorneys,” among other things. The email basically degenerated into a personal attack, including several false accusations that are...

Two years after killing the neighbor of a suspected insurgent in the Iraqi village of Hamdania, seven of the eight Camp Pendleton troops who were found guilty of crimes related to the incident walk free. Four are still in uniform, and one of that group is back serving in Iraq. For all but one of the men, it's been a long journey from the jail shackles and premeditated murder charges that once confronted the group whose supporters dubbed them the "Pendleton 8." The only man who remains jailed is former Sgt. Larry Hutchins III. Hutchins is serving a 15-year sentence...

EXCLUSIVE: Pendleton 8 Exposed, Part 5: Autopsy and Pathology Report April 12, 2008 · As promised, here are the first of many documents to come in the Pendleton 8 case. This is the autopsy of a dead Iraqi that even the report admits is only “believed to be” Awad. You’ll see handwritten notes throughout the report, and these are the notes of Sgt Larry Hutchins himself.What makes this document so incredible is that there is no proof that the man autopsied is even the man the Marines killed that night. In fact, there is some evidence to show that the...

The site of Freeper EUPHORIADEV was hacked. She has lost over 2 years worth of data. Euphoriadev was covering the Haditha and Hamdania incident extensively she has lost over 2 years worth of data we do NOT believe it is the people who are claiming the hack