Posted on 06/17/2015 9:31:35 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) — A Marine sergeant was convicted Wednesday of murdering an Iraqi civilian in 2006, the second time a military jury has returned a guilty verdict in what has become one of the most complicated and long-running criminal cases from the Iraq War.
The jury of three enlisted men and three military officers found Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III guilty of unpremeditated murder.
His wife, Reyna Hutchins, sobbed as the verdict was read. He embraced and kissed her before he left the courtroom.
The jury also found him guilty of conspiracy and larceny. Prosecutors say he stole the AK-47 and the shovel planted near the body to make the victim look like he was an insurgent. The jury found Hutchins not guilty of falsifying an official statement.
The defense argued the military inquiry was shoddy and did not support allegations that Hutchins and his squad set out to kill 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad because he was an Iraqi male.
"You don't have to convict Sgt. Hutchins of anything," Attorney Christopher Oprison, who represented Hutchins, said during closing arguments.
Hutchins, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, was allowed to go home but will return Thursday for sentencing, when he will learn if the judge will credit him for the seven years he already served of an 11-year sentence.
Hutchins had his murder conviction overturned twice by military courts after rulings that there were legal errors in the handling of his case. Under the military justice system, the Navy was allowed to order his case to be retried. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
does this at least mean that he only has four more years? that is a lot of time but I’m hoping he will get his life back and he isn’t being put away for good.
He should but he won’t.
I wonder if they will piss some soldier off enough to encourage him and others to get even?
The Sgt. was already Court Martialed back in 07'. He was inprisoned at Camp Pendleton's Brig temporarily then transferred to Leavenworth for 2 years.
The 2nd degree murder conviction was overturned by the Navy Marine Court of Criminal Appeals in 2010. The CAAF, (the equivalent of the Supreme Court is the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces) overrode the NMCCA in 2011 and reinstated the conviction. They sent Sgt. Hutchins back to prison after he had been freed for about a year and had been living and reunited with his wife,child and family. He then served 2 years at the MiraMar Air Station SD Brig.
His conviction was overturned again!!! by CAAF in 2013. He was freed in 2013 and has since served honorably in the Marine Corps as an active duty Marine.
He is now being retried by the Marine Corps by the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, who demanded this. This Marine has served time at Camp Pendleton's Brig, at Leavenworth and finally at MiraMar Air Station SD's Brig. There are other issues, such as demonstrable UCI involving Secretary of the Navy Mabus in this case.
Cruel and unusual punishment is an understatement for the botched investigation and then the legal musical chairs the Government has been playing with this poor man's life. Sgt. Hutchin's and his family have withstood much in this mockery of justice. Please pray for him and his family.
Triple jeopardy. Thanks for the details, and no surprise Mabus is inflicting the trifecta.
This technique of twisting the legal process to make it fit your desired outcome certainly isn't how America's legal process was originally designed. You would expect this in some third world rouge authoritarian country, it certainly doesn't fit anywhere in a United States Military Court of Law.
“Double Jeopardy
A second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal or conviction or multiple punishments for same offense. The evil sought to be avoided by prohibiting double jeopardy is double trial and double conviction, not necessarily double punishment.
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, “No person shall … be subject for the same offence [sic] to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” This provision, known as the Double Jeopardy Clause, prohibits state and federal governments from prosecuting individuals for the same crime on more than one occasion, or imposing more than one punishment for a single offense. Each of the 50 states offers similar protection through its own constitution, statutes, and Common Law.
Five policy considerations underpin the double jeopardy doctrine: (1) preventing the government from employing its superior resources to wear down and erroneously convict innocent persons; (2) protecting individuals from the financial, emotional, and social consequences of successive prosecutions; (3) preserving the finality and integrity of criminal proceedings, which would be compromised were the state allowed to arbitrarily ignore unsatisfactory outcomes; (4) restricting prosecutorial discretion over the charging process; and (5) eliminating judicial discretion to impose cumulative punishments that the legislature has not authorized.
Double jeopardy is one of the oldest legal concepts in Western civilization. In 355 b.c., Athenian statesman Demosthenes said, “[T]he law forbids the same man to be tried twice on the same issue.” The Romans codified this principle in the Digest of Justinian I in a.d. 533. The principle also survived the Dark Ages (a.d. 400–1066), notwithstanding the deterioration of other Greco-Roman legal traditions, through Canon Law and the teachings of early Christian writers.
In England, the protection against double jeopardy was considered “a universal Maxim of the common law” (United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332, 340, 95 S. Ct. 1013, 1020, 43 L. Ed. 2d 232 [1975]) and was embraced by eminent jurists Henry de Bracton (1250), Sir Edward Coke (1628), Sir Matthew Hale (1736), and Sir William Blackstone (1769). Nonetheless, the English double jeopardy doctrine was extremely narrow. It applied only to defendants who were accused of capital felonies, and only after conviction or acquittal. It did not apply to cases that had been dismissed prior to final judgment, and it was not immune from flagrant abuse by the Crown...”
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Double+Jeopardy
>> it certainly doesn’t fit anywhere in a United States Military Court of Law
Yup, but it happens too frequently and no doubt for political reasons.
This is an update on the Sgt..
Jury delivered sentencing of time-served and dishonorable discharge. According to these articles, the Sgt. plans on appealing.
This article briefly touches on the complexity of fighting in the asymmetrical warfare environment challenging our troops in Iraq at the time, and the nearly impossible ROE’s the politically correct political leadership at the top demanded of them. (Remember Jack Murtha???)
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-iraqi-killing-20150619-story.html
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jun/18/hutchins-hamdaniya-sentencing-iraq-murder/?st
An American version of “Breaker Morant.”
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