Posted on 02/23/2007 7:06:24 PM PST by RedRover
With the March 13 court martial date fast approaching, the counsel for 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard is preparing a vigorous defense.
The 101st Airborne soldier from Sweetwater stands charged with pre-mediated murder in the connection with the May 9, 2006, shooting deaths of three Iraqi detainees during operations at a chemical complex about 65 miles north of Baghdad.
Three other soldiers charged in connection with the shootings have already pleaded guilty to lesser charges and stand poised to testify against the 2001 Sweetwater High School graduate.
At least one of the other soldiers will testify Girouard ordered the men to kill the three Iraqi detainees, according to published reports.
But Girouard’s civilian attorney, hired with funds raised by the Monroe County community, said her client has no plans to plea and his defense is quite simple.
“Sgt. Girouard did not order anyone to kill those Iraqi detainees,” said attorney Anita Gorecki. “He did not give an order period.”
Gorecki is a former Army JAG officer from Fayetteville, N.C. She is now a private attorney who represents military personnel.
Gorecki said she has handled murder cases before and is no stranger to a military courtroom, which is considerably different from a regular courtroom.
According to Gorecki, the jury is a military panel usually made up of at least five military members.
She said the panel generally consists of five to eight members and only two-thirds of the members have to agree on the verdict.
Two current military attorneys, Capt. Ted Miller and Capt. John Merriamn, also wil represent Girouard.
Girouard, an Army Ranger who was serving a second tour of duty in Iraq when he was charged, faces a sentence of life in prison without parole or could serve life in prison with a chance for parole if convicted of the most serious charges against him.
At this point, Gorecki said she is not sure if she will argue that Girouard and the other troops had orders from their superiors to kill all military-age males. The defense attorney also said she is not sure yet if she will argue that the three Iraqi detainees were shot while attempting to escape.
The judge has cleared his calendar for up to 14 days for Girouard’s court martial.
Gorecki said she expected the trial to last about 10 days with up to 11-hour days of testimony at Fort Campbell, Ky.
The attorney said she visited Girouard last week where he is being held at a Naval prison in Charleston, S.C. “He is extremely postive,” she said.
“He’s extremely appreciative of the community’s efforts to support him.”
Tommy Millsaps can be reached at 337-7101 or mcanews4@xtn.net.
I understand from a source close to the case that Gorecki has some major surprises for the prosecution.
Related thread: Army Says Improper Orders by Colonel Led to 4 Deaths-(Former Somalia Ranger Co, Col. MD Steele).
I remember another, longer thread with news about Col. Steele skating while his men went on trial for their lives, but I can't find it. If anyone's searching skills are better than mine, please please post a link if you track it down.
Whatever plays in Peoria
This...?:
Army Commander Let His Own Men Face Death Penalty To Hide His Own Reprimand
Yes! Thanks, smooth! (Boy, you're good!) I'll add keywords so people can find it.
You know I could be totally wrong on this one, but I've done as much research as anyone on these cases, and it just doesn't add up.I really wouldn't be surprised to find out that the rules of engagement DID dictate that they sanitize the areas of operation of military aged males.
Yes, that phrase keeps poppin' up for no good reason, except that it actually means something. I do believe you are on to an important point here.
Still, what I've been able to follow the Iron Triangle case, shows a similar MO by the prosecution.
Chew your way up from the lowest enlisted ranks. Exchange plea deals for confessions. Establish guilt via testimony.
I don't think the Army or CID has a site with information on the case, but I'll try to put together a list of the accused and their sentences to date.
From what I can piece together, four soldiers were charged. In their defense, they claimed "that commanders had given them orders to kill all military-age males on the mission".
They were evidently telling the truth, but later recanted under extreme pressure.
A distinguished commander, Col. Steele was protected, reprimanded behind the scenes, and allowed his men to take the fall.
So here's the state of play.
Three of the four soldiers have pleaded guilty: Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, and Spc. Juston R. Graber.
Clagett and Hunsaker received sentences of 18 years. I can't find the sentence Graber received.
Here are the best articles I've found so far on the case.
AP via the Sun-Sentinel: Soldier Admits Murdering Iraqi Detainees
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- A 101st Airborne Division soldier was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for murdering a detainee and taking part in the killings of two others in Iraq last year.
Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, 22, was one of four soldiers from the division's 3rd Brigade "Rakkasans" who were accused in the detainees' deaths during a May 9 raid on the Muthana chemical complex in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Clagett, of Moncks Corner, S.C., pleaded guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors dropped a second obstruction charge and charges of disrespecting an officer and threatening.
The soldiers first told investigators they shot the detainees because they were attempting to flee -- a story they now say they made up -- and that commanders had given them orders to kill all military-age males on the mission.
Two of those soldiers, Spc. William B. Hunsaker and Spc. Juston R. Graber, have changed their stories and pleaded guilty. The squad leader, Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard, is awaiting his court-martial.
"(Sgt. Girouard) said we were going to cut the zip ties loose and kill the detainees," Clagett told the military judge, Col. Theodore Dixon, on Thursday. "I knew it was an unlawful order. I just went along with it."
Prosecutors said Clagett fatally shot one detainee and seriously wounded another. Official say Graber then killed the wounded detainee, and Hunsaker killed the third.
The judge asked Clagett what his intention was when he shot at the detainees.
"To kill them, your honor," Clagett said.
Clagett's lawyer, Paul Bergrin, has insisted Clagett was following orders, but sought the plea agreement after Hunsaker, 24, told a military judge that Clagett helped him shoot the detainees.
Clagett will also be demoted to private and dishonorably discharged. If he does not cooperate with prosecutors, he could be sentenced to life in prison with a chance at parole.
Military prosecutors would not discuss the case.
--------------
Los Angeles Times: Third soldier pleads guilty in Iraqi men's deaths
CAMPBELL, KY. In a monotone, Army Pfc. Corey Clagett confessed his crimes in clinical detail Thursday and said he was profoundly sorry for what he had done.
Wearing a dress green uniform, his eyes downcast, Clagett told a military court that he conspired with two other U.S. soldiers in May to murder three unarmed Iraqi men they had taken prisoner. He shot two of them, he said quietly. He and his comrades staged a phony crime scene, then lied about it all.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Clagett, 22, pleaded guilty to premeditated murder, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. After questioning the boyish airborne infantryman, a military judge sentenced him to 18 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving a little more than five years, his military lawyer said.
"We were gonna kill 'em for no reason," Clagett told the judge, describing how his squad leader convened a meeting during a combat mission May 9 and announced that the three detainees were going to be killed.
"It wasn't an order, just: 'Everybody kill 'em,' " Clagett said.
He is the third of four soldiers charged in the case to plead guilty to reduced charges. Clagett had faced a life sentence without parole if convicted. The plea deal will reduce his rank to private and strip him of pay and benefits.
"My actions made the Army look bad," he told the judge. "It was wrong."
Clagett's admission Thursday was a marked reversal from the vigorous public defense he and his mother had mounted since the soldier was charged last summer. They had said that Clagett's commanders ordered his unit to kill every military-age male they encountered, and they accused the military of betraying a young soldier who risked his life for his country.
Clagett originally told investigators that he shot the detainees after they had broken free and attacked him. But he confessed Thursday that he had lied to "make it look like the detainees tried to escape and give us justification to shoot them."
The murders took place on a marshy island on Tharthar Lake, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, as Clagett's squad from the 101st Airborne Division attacked what their commanders had described as an Al Qaeda training camp teeming with terrorists. Instead, the soldiers encountered two women, a baby girl and four unarmed Iraqi men.
A 70-year-old man was shot dead as the soldiers assaulted a building during Operation Iron Triangle. Later, Clagett said, he and Spc. William Hunsaker cut plastic handcuffs off the other three men and ordered them to run. As they fled, Clagett said, he shot two of them; Hunsaker shot the third.
Asked by the judge, Col. Theodore Dixon, what he was thinking as he fired, Clagett replied softly: "To kill 'em, your honor."
Hunsaker received an 18-year sentence after pleading guilty this month to premeditated murder, conspiracy and other charges. His plea deal, which required him to testify against Clagett, undermined Clagett's planned defense, his civilian attorney, Paul Bergrin, said after Thursday's hearing.
"We were put into a precarious predicament" by Hunsaker's plea and by a Jan. 18 guilty plea by Spc. Juston Graber, Bergrin said. "It became an indefensible case."
Still, Bergrin told the judge during the hearing: "Corey Clagett believed he was killing known terrorists and saving American lives." Clagett, he said, wrote his family that he expected to be killed on the mission.
Notice how, like in the case of Cleggett, when he did his plea baegain, he pled guilty to the most serious charges, while they dropped an obstruction and threatening charge.
This is bass ackwards from how it works outside the military. Normally if you're up on murder, and you plea,they would change it to manslaughter, attempted murder, something lower, in exchange for the testimony.
Here's some more info. from a previous thread.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782167/posts
Do you suppose the charges arose because these guys were saying that orders came from officers? The lesser charges just seem weird. And possibly tagged on just as bargaining chips.
And, as you suggest, "pleaing up" to murder so that a charge of disrespecting an officer is dropped is truly bizarre.
There could be a multitude of reasons they tacked on the minor charges. Could be like you say, as bargaining chips, could also be just in case the murder charges are dropped the prosecutor can still claim a victory because they found him guilty of SOMETHING. Probably a little of both.
I'm less familiar with the Iron Triangle case than the others, but if it was me, I would have never pled like this. If they wanted to bargain, and drop the murder charges and pronounce me guilty of obstruction, dereliction of duty, that's one thing...
Re. your comments on NCIS, thought you might find this interesting from the Daniel King Case.
http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/NCISKingCaseDoc2TurleyStatement.htm
...."13 As noted by LT Freedus, the NCIS operates in military courts with effective immunity. According to military judges, NCIS cannot be held in contempt for misconduct in military courts. Thus, unlike every other police organization, the NCIS knew that no military judge has authority over them in discovery abuses, false testimony and other areas."...
This is stunning to me. Wonder who does have jurisdiction over NCIS?
Regarding the pleas, who knows what kind of deal Spc. Graber got. All the prosecution needs in a case like this is to break one man (like Bacos among the Pendleton 8).
The CID follows the same rules as the NCIS. No recordings of interrogations. Threaten the accused with anything you can think of. Write up a statement and get the man to sign it as a confession.
Wonder how a man like Col. Michael Steele can live with himself?
Hey, flight! Any idea of the deal Spc. Graber got in the Iron Triangle case?
They appear to operate EVERYWHERE with immunity. Another idiosyncrasy of justice meted out by courts-martial, particualrly Navy, they tend to pick whichever charges will take the focus off of the leadership, and put it on the enlisted ranks. I've seen it myself more than once...
The problem with military courts is there is just no oversight.
I do believe however, that many of these Article 32s and courts-martial will have one benefit:
The juries deciding these cases must also consist of enlisted men. Therefore if the central issue is interpretation or carrying out of the ROE,it may help to have enlisted deciding.
The drawback in a court-martial though, is that the verdict doesn't have to be unanimous, 3 out of 5 I think..
Good article but the writer doesn't account for Spc Graber.
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