We'll see if your interpretation pans out.
My bet is on the acquittal.
Yes, it was. If you didn't get it, read it again...
We'll see if your interpretation pans out.
Subject to the facts we don't know yet, it will.
My bet is on the acquittal.
Fine. You've missed a few in the last few months, though, haven't you? I think I'll bet with Polybius the next roll or two...
The first thing that Marine needs right now is a good lawyer to tell him to STFU and he needs to do it. With the politics I have seen played at OJAG, I would advise a civilian lawyer specializing in military law rather than a JAG officer.
An acquittal will depend on the facts that can be proved and that is where that Marine has an advantage if he starts thinking about what he said to the reporter and reads up on the LOAC lectures he obviously slept through or totally forgot.
Any physical evidence in the case is probably long gone and there were no witnesses. His best bet is to claim that he was bragging to the reporter, or claim that the Iraqi put up a fight or claim that the Iraqi tried to escape or claim that he made the whole thing up....anything, anything at all except that he had an EPW under control and that he decided to wilfully execute that EPW with two rounds to the back of his skull.
If he repeats that story he told the reporter to the investigators or at court-martial, he is toast.
What the U.S. Marine Corps thinks about the wilfull execution of an EPW can be found in Chapter III of Marine Corps Reference Publication 4-11.8B: War Crimes Investigation.
Among the UCMJ Articles that Marine Corps Reference Publication 4-11.8B lists as applicable Articles for such an act is UCMJ Article 118 (Murder).