LOL. You do have a way with words, 4wb. Much more colorful, but on target. For the record, here's a description by a blogger who was involved in the defense of Sgt Warner (who plead out to 17 months vs. life?) about the chain of custody of evidence used in this trial.
JAG Law Blog; Behenna Mistrial Denied..............Judge Dickson during the mistrial motion and the military panel during the finding of fact had to weigh the direct testimony of witnesses against the expert testimony. In this case, the experts of both the defense and apparently one from the prosecution were in direct conflict with the eyewitnesses, Harry the interpreter and SSG Mitch Warner. In this case, there may be a reason that there was such a big discrepancy.
When this case was initially investigated, the Iraqi police were not the first on the scene. Members of Ali Mansur’s family and friends initially arrived to inspect the body. They tampered with the evidence, moved the body and moved the forensic evidence. The main police video was taken on a handheld cell phone. The evidence of the grenade fragments were turned over to the the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division by the Iraqi police after they had retrieved them from Ali Mansur’s family. There was literally no chain of custody on much of the evidence. At the Article 32 hearing, the Iraqi Pathologist misidentified Ali Mansur’s body and much of his autopsy seemed questionable. And, finally, SSG Warner’s testimony was not fully explored until less than a week prior to LT Behenna’s trial. Most of the experts, who rely on some eyewitness testimony to recreate their crime scenes, had little or not reliable evidence to work with................
I didn't get much further than this tonight;
Judge Dickson’s recommendation that LT Behenna should have a reduced sentence should probably be appreciated by both the defense and the prosecution in this case. As a Military Judge, Dickson is both experienced and wise. By compromising the verdict, he has recommended a reasonable sentence, in the face of the military panels verdict, and the difficulties in compromised evidence.
I always have a hard time putting a finger on exactly what is a reasonable sentence for a guilty verdict based on admittedly compromised evidence, though I can certainly recognize how an innocent man would appreciate the wisdom and experience of a judge that hid exculpatory evidence from the jury, evidence that might very well have sent him home to his family. [head banging on keyboard]