Posted on 03/01/2007 12:38:49 PM PST by rightalien
CAMP PENDLETON ---- Four Iraqis with whom Marine Corps officials were working to bring to Camp Pendleton to testify in the slaying of an Iraqi civilian last year are no longer willing to testify and will not be making the trip, a military judge was told Wednesday.
Lt. Col. John Baker made the disclosure during arguments in advance of the scheduled April 23 trial of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III.
Hutchins' attorneys sought this week to suppress an implicating statement he had made to investigators, as well as to get government approval for a second trip to Iraq to interview witnesses.
Hutchins is charged with leading a platoon of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman who prosecutors say abducted and killed a 52-year-old retired Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania, Iraq, on April 26.
The corpsman and five of the Marines who Hutchins led in Hamdania have pleaded guilty to their roles in the killing, and each say it was Hutchins who led the plot. He faces murder, conspiracy, kidnapping and related offenses in the slaying of a man that prosecutors contend had no insurgent ties and was seized from his home in the middle of the night.
Baker told Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, the judge presiding over Hutchins' court-martial, that the witnesses in the shooting death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad were to be here this week to testify.
"The four Iraqis who were coming to the U.S. now are no longer willing to do so," Baker said.
The Iraqis were expected to testify in the case against Hutchins and two remaining defendants, Cpl. Trent Thomas and Lance Cpl. Marshall Magincalda.
Meeks did not rule on either defense motion when the court adjourned late Wednesday afternoon. He said he wanted more time to consider the arguments before issuing a decision within the next few days.
In asking for a second defense trip to Iraq, Hutchins' attorney, Lt. Col. Joseph Smith, said a visit arranged for the lawyers to Hamdania on Jan. 25 was hampered because the group had only 45 minutes on the ground and no chance to interview witnesses they contend could help their client's case.
They want Meeks to order a second trip ---- one that Marine Corps officials testified would be fraught with problems, because the area northwest of Baghdad is not under direct U.S. control and is an area of frequent insurgent attacks.
"We do understand the security concerns, but the law provides equal access to witnesses," Smith told Meeks.
But the judge challenged Smith to identify what he believed would be accomplished by a second trip and pointed out the dangers.
"There is a war going on in Iraq," Meeks said. "It is not like going to Boston to visit people."
When the squad that Hutchins led was in Hamdania, U.S. forces were conducting regular patrols and the area was considered safer.
But Lt. Col. Clifford Weinstein testified that the area hasn't been safe since November. Providing the kind of security that it would take to allow attorneys to go around the village and knock on doors would require a battalion-size force of 1,000 to 1,500 troops, he said.
The defense did win on one point this week: Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the convening authority over the case as head of the I Marine Expeditionary Force and all Marines in the Middle East, approved the appointment of an investigator to help sift through classified material about the squad's efforts at counterintelligence while in Hamdania. That material could contain evidence that would help Hutchins, Smith said.
In arguing to suppress a seven-page, single-spaced statement that Hutchins wrote in Iraq when confronted with Awad's killing, the defense contended it was written under duress and after Hutchins had asked for an attorney but not been provided one.
As a result, the statement should be considered coerced, and anything in it that implicates him should not be allowed into evidence at his trial, the defense argued.
But Baker, the lead prosecutor, said the statement was made voluntarily and at Hutchins' request.
Baker also said that Hutchins' statement to an investigator in Iraq ---- that he fired three bullets into Awad's head as the man struggled to breathe, minutes after being shot by the members of his squad ---- was voluntary and should be allowed into evidence.
Hutchins' lead attorney, Rich Brannon, said that despite the fact that the five men who have pleaded guilty are now required to testify against his client, and are expected to name him as the mastermind of the killing, he believes the 22-year-old Massachusetts native is innocent.
"I believe in my client and I believe he is innocent until proven guilty," Brannon said, adding that the defense will work to tie the victim to the insurgency, either through his actions or those of his relatives.
All of the accused are from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.
"Anytime you have five co-defendants willing to testify, it makes it more difficult," Brannon said.
Hutchins, who also is charged with assaulting three other Iraqis, did not testify during this week's hearing. He faces life in prison if a military jury convicts him and he receives the maximum possible sentence.
Thomas is due in a base courtroom this morning for arraignment and motions in his case. He withdrew guilty pleas he had entered on Jan. 18 and is being allowed to take his case to trial. His plea withdrawal resulted in charges being refiled against him that now include premeditated murder. He was previously charged with unpremeditated murder.
Those who have pleaded guilty have testified that Awad's killing was meant to "send a message" to insurgents that the Marines were tired of being attacked.
There are now no witnesses supporting that 'crime' ... Can Huchins be freed because there are no witnesses, or does the testimony of the previous six men constitute 'witness' ?
And if so, couldn't there be recourse after the fact that the men were 'coerced by fear' to making 'witness' statements ?
None of this sounded right from the beginning and it appears to be getting wronger as this trial goes on.
I pray for these men ... IMO ... they've been set up.
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