While defense attorneys are habitual liars, I do hope the military is not pre judging our Marines. Those Marines were doing a tough job overseas and should be given all the rights any defendant in the criminal system is entitled to.
I'm trying to inject a note of caution here.
Any defense attorney for anybody who starts slipping down the path towards accusing the U.S. military of abusing prisoners of any sort tends to raise my hackles.
The song gets a bit old after about the thirtieth time I hear it.
The pretrial disclosures are mandatory and comprehensive, the trial procedures are restrictive on the government and the post-trial command review and appellate process examines the record much more carefully than does the civilian.
These Marines will have a scrupulously fair trial with a well trained and experienced military trial judge chosen from among seasoned Navy or Marine judge advocates from both the prosecution and defense communities. If they choose to do so, the accused can engage a civilian trial lawyer to work in conjunction with the military defense counsel.
The ''jury'' will be a panel of 5 or 7 officers who know the stresses of combat and the conduct obligations of an American fighting man. I'd rather have such a jury than the too often cretin or illiterate guy or gal on the street who was too incompetent to get out of jury duty in any American city.
These Marines are caught up in a system that will exonerate them or convict them based upon properly admitted evidence and the facts not the emotion so often present in locally notorious cases.