Posted on 10/04/2007 3:22:21 AM PDT by RedRover
Official recommends Wuterich should be tried for negligent homicide in deaths of two women, five children
CAMP PENDLETON -- A Marine Corps official has recommended that murder charges be dismissed against a Camp Pendleton squad leader accused in the deaths of 17 civilians killed in the Iraqi city of Haditha two years ago.
The official, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, said in a recommendation obtained by the North County Times that rather than face murder charges, squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich should be tried for the lesser offense of negligent homicide in the deaths of five children and two women.
Ware recommended 10 other murder charges against Wuterich be dismissed.
"I believe after reviewing all the evidence that no trier of fact can conclude Staff Sgt. Wuterich formed the criminal intent to kill," Ware wrote in reference to the women and children. "When a Marine fails to exercise due care and civilians die, the charge of negligent homicide, and not murder, is appropriate."
Ware's report, issued to prosecutors and defense attorneys this week, found the evidence against Wuterich contradictory. Ware's role as the case's investigating officer is akin to that of a judge presiding over a pretrial hearing.
"The case against Staff Sgt. Wuterich is simply not strong enough to conclude he committed murder beyond a reasonable doubt," Ware wrote. "Almost all witnesses have an obvious bias or prejudice."
Wuterich's attorneys were reviewing the report and were unavailable. Marine Corps policy dictates that officials and prosecutors do not comment on an investigating officer's findings.
The Haditha incident is one of two civilian killing cases arising out of actions by Camp Pendleton troops in Iraq. It evolved from an initial determination that the deaths were the result of urban warfare into a firestorm that mixed politics with the fog of war and the military's rules of engagement.
Four officers were eventually charged with dereliction of duty at Haditha and four enlisted men charged with murder. Charges have since been dropped for two officers and two enlisted men.
Ware's recommendations are headed to Camp Pendleton's Gen. James Mattis, who will decide what happens to Wuterich. The 27-year-old Connecticut native, whose first combat experience came at Haditha, could face a life sentence in prison if convicted of murder at trial. Negligent homicide carries a maximum three-year prison term.
Mattis can accept or reject Ware's recommendations. The general's power under the military justice system includes authority to drop the case altogether, which he did for two officers and two enlisted men.
The civilian deaths came after Wuterich led his squad in an attack on a group of homes following a roadside bombing that destroyed a Humvee, killing a lance corporal and injuring two Marines.
Five Iraqi men were the first to die when Wuterich shot them shortly after they emerged from a car that drove up immediately after the bombing. Ware recommends the charges in those deaths be dismissed, accepting Wuterich's statement that he believed those men were insurgents taking part in the attack.
The Marine Corps initially reported the Iraqis died in the bombing and subsequent small arms fire. Several weeks later, the military corrected the number of deaths to 24 after questions were raised by a Time magazine reporter who spoke to relatives of the slain Iraqis.
The first media reports resulted in an international outcry, prompting military officials to order a full-scale investigation, which brought on criminal charges.
A decision on whether Wuterich's battalion commander at Haditha, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, will face court-martial on dereliction charges is pending, as is a recommendation that murder charges against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum be dismissed.
Murder charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt were dropped after the general found he acted within the rules of engagement. Ware also presided over the hearings for Sharratt and Tatum and recommended their charges be dismissed.
The fourth enlisted man in the case, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, had murder charges against him dropped in April in exchange for his testimony.
Dereliction charges have been dropped against Capts. Randy Stone and Lucas McConnell. A pretrial hearing for 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson is set to begin later this month.
During Wuterich's hearing, which concluded in early September, he told Ware that he regretted the civilian deaths but maintained he and his men acted in response to their training and within the rules of engagement.
"I will always mourn the unfortunate deaths of the innocent Iraqis who were killed during our response to that attack," Wuterich said. "As a sergeant and a squad leader, I am responsible for the decisions made to employ the tactics we used that day."
Former Marine Corps judge and prosecutor Gary Solis, now a military law professor at Georgetown University, said the outlook for Wuterich is a lot brighter now.
"We are seeing the system at work," Solis said, "and the question now is if he does face trial on negligent homicide, will a jury at Camp Pendleton convict him?"
The Haditha charges came six months after another Camp Pendleton group was charged in the abduction and slaying of an Iraqi man in the village of Hamdania. That case resulted in convictions for seven Marines and a Navy corpsman.
After all the foreclosures on the land in the 12th district they can acquire the property!
There you go, smooth! That’s the answer. Buy up the 12th and invite us all down for an election day party!
$43 million, huh. Nice to be able to get 1/10th of one
percent. Although, if the government did start paying for
civilian lawyers, I could envision a truly ginormous monster,
and war profiteering... ok gotta stop, my head is starting to
hurt.
How’s bigheadbro? Let us know when he’s back please. Eager to know how he’s feeling.
He should be home by now, thought he might stop by, but probably anxious to get home. Spoke at him yesterday, told me there should be some mention of the case on Hannity Sunday, stirred up like a nest of yellowjackets, and like somebody said “Never anger a man who has an endless supply of paper and ink.”
There’ll be many on the left that are outraged because no murder charges were brought but that’s to be expected because leftism is a mental disorder. lol
*********
I just left a blog that popped up during a search that has gotten the ball rolling in a nasty way. I gotta go take a shower after that one...
President Eisenhower was handed a report that stated fully half of Americans were below average intelligence. But I don’t think their is any such thing as average intelligence, either you have it or you don’t. Glad to have found you people on FR. It’s like a breath of fresh air.
Sadly, I knew it would happen without even checking any of the leftist blogs, those types have no shame.
Got to take back about Hannity on Sunday, don’t know exactly when it will air, will keep you posted.
I am positive that no soldier is allowed to keep photos of the dead for any unofficial purpose.
That is beside the point at this point. They will pull out the stops on Grayson. He is the key to salvaging a bit of their case.
Their case will be: destruction of evidence prevented the truth from being known. It will be widely reported in all the papers, on every network, and in all comedy skits and TV talks shows. It give Murtha & Time cover, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they will use it.
JMHO, of course. But, these people are snakes.
As promised, here is a bit of Capt Dinsmore’s testimony (keep in mind he was Lt Grayson's superior)...
I became aware photos had been taken by SGT LAUGHNER on 19 Nov 05. It was not unusual for LT GRAYSON to forward photographs taken during a BDA to me with his report. In this case he did not do so and in late Dec 05, when the Battalion was asking for pictures of the 19 Nov 05 incident I asked him if any existed. LT GRAYSON informed me he had ordered SGT LAUGHNER to delete the photographs because they did not meet our criteria for having intelligence value. I only received photographs from LT GRAYSON attached to a written report to support the intelligence mission. The fact that he had ordered them deleted did not alarm me, as it was prohibited to maintain pictures of enemy dead or other graphic war images. This was SOP and I routinely enforced this SOP. In Mar 06, after the initiation of the NCIS investigation, I asked LT GRAYSON if he had seen the photographs reportedly taken of the civilians killed on 19 Nov 05. He explained to me he had and he attempted to describe the content of the photographs the best he could.
Better safe than sorry.
WE need to pull out all the defense stops on Grayson in anticipation of the enemy doing the same.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Agreed. BTW, the whole Dinsmore clan will be there for the hearing so we’ll get first-hand reports. And Major Jeff will testify if called (though his earlier testimony may be enough).
Those are the exact reasons the Pentagon wants these cases to simply go away without any trials. If they go to trial, a lot of very powerful people who don’t want to be witnesses will be forced to testify. All this stuff is going to fade away in the next six months.
Eventualy, long after the false accusations flooded the world's airwaves and print, there comes a time when the truth starts steadily dripping out. The fact that the falsehoods were so wildly over sold will help keep this story in play as the unbderlining treachery becomes known....the Rats are trying so desperately to lose this war, they are painting our most dedicated patriots as criminals.
All, because they bet on a lame horse.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: GARY SOLIS, MILITARY LAW PROFESSOR: MCINTYRE: And that might help explain why so far prosecutors have had trouble making murder charges stick. Charges have been dropped against two marines, another is waiting a decision. Is there a tendency to give marine soldiers in combat a benefit of a doubt? SOLIS: I think that's another problem in this case. You have a military jury, probably most of whom, if not all of whom, will have been in Iraq. .. SOLIS: It would be difficult to say that justice has been served if no one is convicted for Haditha.-------------
It would be difficult to say that justice has been served if I punched Solis in the head, but it’s worth a shot.
coining the term enemedia
There were 4 of us playing with it. Click on my name and scroll past the wall of shame for the story on the birth of the "ENEMEDIA"
Hiya, Justa and thanks! I was pretty sure you were right in the middle of it, I think the term will outlast all of us. LOL!
As long as the term outlasts them, I’ll be happy! ;*)
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