Posted on 09/19/2022 8:26:27 AM PDT by BenLurkin
According to prosecutors, Ryan Sawyer Mays was a young, arrogant sailor angry about being assigned to deck duty after failing to become a Navy SEAL — and he made the Navy pay in a big way.
But the prosecution has presented no physical evidence proving that Mays, 21, set the USS Bonhomme Richard on fire, a fact defense lawyers plan to highlight at the sailor’s court martial that is scheduled to start Monday at Naval Base San Diego.
The July 2020 blaze burned for nearly five days and sent an acrid smoke over San Diego, damaging the amphibious assault ship so badly that it had to be scuttled. It marked one of the worst noncombat warship disasters in recent memory.
Mays is charged with aggravated arson and the willful hazarding of a vessel. He has denied any wrongdoing.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
I would wager that the Navy has evidence or they wouldn’t have charged him. Now, he may be able to skate he was a poofter and felt butt-hurt because he wasn’t treated with the dignity that he thought he deserved. Any wagers?
Guaranteed to be pardoned by Domestic Enemy in Chief Biden.
If he succeeds, give him his trident and make him a SEAL.
Angry about being assigned to deck duty after failing to become a Navy SEAL.
And he still doesn’t know why it takes a fit body and mind to be one.
This guy is looking at a tough three weeks probation.
It’s hard to believe there is no surveillance video available to the Navy in this case. Incompetence of a peacetime military rears its ugly head again.
Give him what he wants. Send him out with a SEAL team for some training. I’ll bet he doesn’t come back...some sort of accident, you know.
One major reason the draft ended and won’t come back.
Keel haul him!
Then hang him from the yardarm!...................
Chelsea Manning got off after a trial and imprisonment. All for show. Execution would not swing 2 ways. We don’t have it in us.
Execution isn't likely but it will be hard for a politician to pardon someone who tried to burn down a ship with other lives on board.
Leaking classified information, like Manning did, isn't a crime to Democrats anyway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion
The Navy didn’t look very good with their first Iowa investigation.
I would wager the Navy MUST get a scalp any scalp and the truth doesn’t matter. I read this thread and I don’t understand accepting the company line. Particularly if you have served. I just want a fair trial and the truth to come out.
Alternatively, to the yet-to-be-proven-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt that Mays started the fire, there are other reasonable alternatives to how the fire got started, and then, because of numerous failures by ship officers, got totally out of control and burned for nearly five days, destroying the ship.
Furthermore, the judge at the preliminary (Art. 32) hearing recommended against a court-martial but was overruled by the (then) Fleet Commander.
Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into a kangaroo court-martial where clear evidence is replaced by character assassination.
Make him walk the plank!
Then hang him from the yardarm!...................
This could just highlight the differences between the way a civilian trial and a military court-martial handle evidence in the pre-trial phase.
The proper purpose of a trial, whether civilian or military, is primarily to determine the truth, secondarily to punish lawbreakers.
The frequent purpose of a trial, whether civilian or military, is to hang a scapegoat and the truth be damned.
"the Navy judge overseeing that process recommended the case not go to court martial. But Vice Adm. Steve Koehler, the former commander of the San Diego-based U.S. 3rd Fleet, who had the final say, ordered the court martial."
"Retired Navy Capt. Lawrence B. Brennan, an adjunct professor at Admiralty and International Maritime Law Fordham Law School, said the prosecution has its work cut out for it."
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