NOW can we charge these people under 18 USC 2387?
Posted on 04/04/2003 4:22:40 PM PST by Jean S
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier was charged with two counts of premeditated murder in an incident in Kuwait where grenades were rolled into tents of fellow soldiers, the U.S. military said on Friday.
Sgt. Hasan Akbar, 32, assigned to the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was charged on March 25 with two counts of premeditated murder, 17 counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated arson and one count of misbehavior as a sentinel, a statement from Fort Campbell said.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed after grenades were lobbed into three tents at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait on March 23.
Akbar was returned to the United States on March 28 and was being held at a military confinement facility, the statement said.
The military investigation of the incident continues. "Given present combat operations, the time necessary to complete the investigation of the March 23 incident and process the charges preferred against Sgt. Akbar is uncertain," the statement said.
In his warped mind, this one may scare him more than the murder charges.
When I was in the USMC - and receiving what seemed to be endless assignments to guard duty - I learned how seriously the military takes this. You end up watching for the Officer of the Day a helluva lot more than anything else.
NOW can we charge these people under 18 USC 2387?
After all, it's environmentally friendly, as rope is organic, reusable, and a renewable resource!
Tia
It's also one of the articles of the UCMJ that is punishable by death.
913. ART. 113. MISBEHAVIOR OF A SENTINEL OR LOOKOUT
Any sentinel or look-out who is found drunk or sleeping upon his post, or leaves it before he is regularly relieved, shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, by if the offense is committed at any other time, by such punishment other than death as court-martial may direct.
This mu-slime is not fit to lick a U.S. military latrine, much less the graves of our fallen warriors...
Redundancy alert
A Matter of Life and Death: Examining the Military Death Penalty's Fairness"
by Dwight Sullivan (The Federal Lawyer, June 1998) (reprinted with permssion of author)
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 15 offenses can be punishable by death, though many of these crimes -- such as desertion or disobeying a superior commissioned officer's orders -- carry the death penalty only in time of war.
The "convening authority" -- a high-ranking commanding officer who decides to bring the case to trial -- chooses whether the government will seek a death sentence. If the case is referred capitally, the defendant cannot choose a bench [judge only] trial; rather, the case must be tried before a panel of at least five military members.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice also precludes the defendant in a capital case from pleading guilty. Thus, every military death penalty case is resolved by trial before a panel of servicemembers.
A death penalty will be imposed only if the panel members reach unanimous agreement on four separate points. First, a military defendant cannot be sentenced to death absent a unanimous conviction of a death-eligible offense.... If the panel returns a unanimous conviction, the case then enters the sentencing phase.... The case's outcome will depend upon the [panel] members' resolution of three issues. First, they must determine whether the government has proven a specified aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt....
Most of these aggravating factors -- such as killing more than one person or being the triggerman in a felony murder -- are similar to those found in civilian capital punishment schemes. Other factors -- such as committing an offense with the intent to avoid hazardous duty or knowingly endangering a mission -- are unique to the military.
[The panel] must then weigh all of the aggravating evidence in the case against any evidence in extenuation and mitigation. A death penalty may not be imposed unless the members unanimously conclude that the aggravating circumstances substantially outweigh the mitigating circumstances.
Finally, even if every member agrees upon the existence of an aggravating factor and concludes that the evidence in aggravation outweighs the extenuating and mitigating evidence, any member is still free to choose a sentence other than death. Thus, members must unanimously conclude that death is an appropriate sentence.
When a death sentence is imposed, the record is initially reviewed by the convening authority, who has the power to reduce sentences and to set aside guilty findings.... The convening authority can reduce the sentence, but cannot increase it. And this review is no mere rubberstamp. Several years ago, a Marine Corps general commuted an adjudged death sentence to imprisonment for life. If the convening authority approves the death sentence, the condemned servicemember will be moved to military death row....
The record of trial then goes before one of the military justice system's four intermediate appellate courts: the Army, Navy-Marine Corps, Air Force, or Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals.... If the Court of Criminal Appeals affirms a death sentence, the case then goes before the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, as the Court of Military Appeals was renamed in 1994. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces is a five-member Article 1 court that sits atop the military justice system. Its judges are civilians appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate to serve 15-year terms.
[If the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirms the sentence], the case is eligible for Supreme Court review. The Supreme Court's certiorari jurisdiction over military justice cases... was enacted in 1983.... When the Supreme Court affirms [the sentence] or denies certiorari in a military capital case, the death sentence is then reviewed by the executive branch. If the President approves the death sentence, the condemned servicemember can seek habeas relief from the Article III judiciary. If the habeas petition is ultimately denied, the condemned servicemember will be led from death row down a flight of stairs to the USDB's death chamber. There he will be strapped to a gurney and executed by lethal injection.
Let him do his last dance on the end of a rope.
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