Posted on 12/03/2004 10:49:57 AM PST by JesseHousman
A judge ruled that a sergeant's admission that he rolled grenades into his colleagues' tent will be allowed in his court-martial, which has been delayed until April.
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Sgt. Hasan Akbar's statement acknowledging he rolled grenades into the tents of sleeping U.S. soldiers will be admissible when he goes on trial in the attack that killed two officers, a judge ruled Thursday.
But the judge excluded statements Akbar made to two sergeants who guarded him after the attack, saying Akbar had not yet been informed of his legal rights.
Defense attorneys also succeeded in getting a nearly a two-month delay in the court-martial, until April 5, so they can gather more documentation to argue Akbar was insane at the time of the March 2003 attack at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait.
Akbar is accused of stealing grenades from a Humvee and rolling them into the tent of fellow members of the 101st Airborne Division just days after the start of the Iraq war. Killed were Army Capt. Christopher Seifert, 27, and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40. Fourteen other soldiers were injured.
If convicted of two counts of premeditated murder and three counts of attempted premeditated murder, the 33-year-old Akbar could receive the death penalty.
LYNNDIE ENGLAND CASE
Also at Fort Bragg, a judge ruled Thursday at a preliminary hearing for Pfc. Lynndie England that her statements acknowledging she was ''joking around'' when she posed for photos with naked Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison will be allowed at her court-martial.
Col. Stephen Henley also decided to delay until Dec. 22 a hearing on a defense request to throw out the now-infamous photos of England piling naked detainees in a human pyramid, leading a naked, hooded prisoner by a leash and giving the thumbs-up as she pointed at the genitals of a hooded Iraqi.
TACTICS UNDER FIRE
In other developments, the Army, citing national security, closed a hearing Thursday on whether three soldiers will be courtmartialed for allegedly suffocating an Iraqi general during an interrogation last year.
Allowing the public and the media to observe the proceedings at Fort Carson, Colo., would cause serious damage to national security and could jeopardize the defendants' safety, investigating officer Capt. Robert Ayers said.
The Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a preliminary hearing, began shortly afterward.
Ridiculous.
And WHY is this sorry excuse for a "soldier" not doing his time at Guantanamo with all the other jihadist terrorist scum?
Why is this traitorous, born-again muslim scum still kicking?
Just shoot him and be done with it.
Well he is an American citizen (I assume being he is in the US miltary). Therefore he is entitled to the same rights and protections under the US Constitution as any American. (He gets the same rights as Tim McVeigh did - and after our legal system ran its course McVeigh did get justice and I'm sure this thug will too.)
RE: "Why is this traitorous, born-again muslim scum still kicking?"
"Ya' know, You're developing a knack for upstaging me, partner" -Bruce Willis in Sunset (1988).
: )
It really is enraging me the way we these terrorists are still alive and these traitors and murderers amongst us are allowed to go on like this. What are terrorists to fear? There's no consequence or suffering. They don't even seem to have to fear the death penalty.
Ditto that.
(The sooner, the better)
Then, we warehouse these obvious candidates for the death penalty.
Since this didn't happen on a battlefield, his court martial had to take place back in the States. He's a US soldier and will be treated as such despite what he did. Then he gets shot.
Because he's a native born US Citizen, entitled to a trial. Fortunately military trials (courts martial) are not, in general, lengthy. Nor is the appeals process. The militay has it's own, "Court of Appeals". The only place the military justice system intersects with the civilian one is at the Supreme Court. They, including the military judges, want to be sure all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed when and if the case gets there.
They don't need that testimony to get a conviction, so throwing it out eliminates one possible ground for an appeal.
It's too bad the military doesn't use hanging or firing squads anymore.
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