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By KAREN JEFFREY
It is supposed to be a time when they can ease up a little and spoil their granddaughter. Instead they find themselves embroiled in a nightmare: Their firstborn son, U.S. Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, 22, is locked up in a military jail across the country awaiting trial on charges that he and seven soldiers under his command kidnapped and murdered an Iraqi civilian nearly one year ago.
Since May the younger Hutchins has been in the brig at Camp Pendleton in California, and until only a few weeks ago was held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. ''All we want for Larry is a fair shake,” Hutchins Jr. says. ''Something happened over there, and we may never know the complete truth. What we do ask is that Larry be treated fairly by the military that is going to try him and the public that sent him to Iraq in the first place.” According to reports in The Associated Press, prosecutors contend that last April Hutchins led a squad of six other Marines and a Navy Corpsman in the search for an insurgent named Saleh Gowad, who had previously been captured and released. Unable to find Gowad, prosecutors claim the soldiers randomly seized Hashim Awad, 52, a disabled former policeman, from his home and shot him along a roadside. The soldiers are accused of putting an AK-47 rifle and shovel alongside the body to make it seem as though he had been planting an explosive devise. Hutchins, a third-generation Marine, faces a possible life sentence if convicted. He and his former squad members admitted shooting the man April 26 as they patrolled a small village west of Baghdad not far from Abu Ghraib prison. But Hutchins is being singled out by military prosecutors as the ringleader. Five of those charged alongside Hutchins have since pleaded guilty and received sentences ranging from one year to 21 months, although one soldier received eight years in prison. Military prosecutors dropped the murder charges against them in exchange for their promised testimony against Hutchins, who has not been offered a similar plea bargain. His trial is set to start next month, but motions were recently filed in an effort to postpone it until July. Two other soldiers, one of whom accepted a plea offer and then changed his mind, also face murder charges, but their trials have not yet been scheduled. Although Hutchins' case has not generated the kind of publicity as that of the Marines accused of killing women and children in Haditha, it has nonetheless drawn the attention of a couple heavy hitters: U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., whose district covers Cape Cod and the Islands, and Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz will provide assistance to Hutchins' defense team and enlist some of his law students in researching legal issues in the case. ''I've looked over this case and have grave concerns about whether this young man is being treated fairly,” Dershowitz said. ''Look at the deals struck with his co-defendants. This young man is being singled out, being targeted by a government that needs to blame somebody.” Delahunt's concerns led him to assign a staff attorney to work with Hutchins' defense team and to set aside space on his Web site - www.house.gov/delahunt - with links to stories and court documents on the case. ''This is about a basic fundamental right of fairness,” Delahunt says. ''The important thing is shining a light on what is transpiring in a military court on the other side of the country. It is important that the military understand the public is watching this case.” Among those keeping track is Dennis resident Timothy Harrington, a former Marine, who in his own words, is ''gonna pound away at this to make sure the kids don't get buried. These kids, Larry Hutchins, the most, are being screwed. And if the American people don't pay attention, a great injustice will be done.” Harrington's wife is working through the Web site www.pendleton8.com in an effort to raise money for the defense of Hutchins and the other soldiers charged in the case. What bothers Delahunt and Dershowitz is the seeming disparity in the plea offers to the soldiers and the government's accusation that Hutchins is the mastermind behind the killing. So does the fact that during a recent visit to Iraq Hutchins' military attorneys were not allowed sufficient time at the alleged crime scene to interview witnesses, according to court documents filed by Hutchins' attorneys. The area was deemed too dangerous for Americans, according to testimony reported by The Associated Press during the plea bargain hearings. Also, the government will not give defense attorneys access to classified documents about Awad. The defense - military lawyers supplied by the Marines and civilian attorneys hired by the Hutchins - says it has not had sufficient time to prepare a defense, nor access to all relevant documents. ''That's just one of the irregularities we have concerns about,” says Sandwich resident John Kivlan, a former Marine and former prosecutor who now works part time as a legal adviser on Delahunt's congressional staff. He accompanied Delahunt to Camp Pendleton in December to meet Hutchins. ''We were very impressed by him, more so than we expected,” Kivlan says. ''This is a Marine's Marine. He eats, breathes, lives and is willing to die for the Marine Corps. He is a decent, honest young man who truly believes he was following orders to protect his fellow Marines.” ''When your boy is at war, you worry constantly, says Hutchins Jr., who like his own father and now his son joined the Marines shortly out of high school. ''You try to keep busy and not think about that phone call or seeing two military officers come up your sidewalk.” The Hutchins live in the same neighborhood where they raised their sons, where neighbors watch out for one another and describe the Hutchins boys as a throwback to another era. They shoveled other people's driveways. They pulled weeds for elderly neighbors. ''They're good boys. Larry especially,” says Mary Hale, who lives across the street. ''This is all so sad, so very sad. It dismays me to see what our government is doing.” In addition to remortgaging their house, Hutchins, a long-time member of the Plymouth Rod and Gun Club, recently sold all his rifles. The couple inventories their personal belongings with an eye towards selling them on eBay. Relatives held a fundraiser last summer, but otherwise, this couple has not gone looking for financial support from others. ''There are some people who have been very good to us,” Kathleen Hutchins said. ''Without other people's generosity we could not have gone out to visit Larry.” Visits - there have been three so far - are too expensive for the couple to make on a regular basis. Both continue to work. And they provide what financial support they can to their son's wife, who recently moved to California with their 2-year-old daughter to be closer to her husband as he awaits trial.
The Hutchins are now plunged into a bewildering world that requires them to keep one foot in the unfamiliar terrain of the military judicial system and the other in their daily lives as working people and parents. That a congressman and a Harvard law professor would become involved stuns them. ''We never dreamed that people like that would step in to help us, that people like that would care about seeing that a boy from Plymouth - America's hometown, you know - gets justice,” Hutchins Jr. says. Karen Jeffrey can be reached at kjeffrey@capecodonline.com.
(Published: March 26, 2007)
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Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, 22, of Plymouth, shown leaving his arraignment hearing Dec. 7 with his wife, Reyna Hutchins, is charged with kidnapping and killing an Iraqi civilian last April 26 in Hamdania, Iraq.