Posted on 07/18/2007 7:38:37 PM PDT by radar101
CAMP PENDLETON -- A military jury on Wednesday acquitted a Marine corporal of murder but convicted of him of conspiracy and kidnapping in the 2006 abduction and slaying of a retired Iraqi policeman last year.
Jurors decided that Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, 25, was innocent of the most serious charge of premeditated murder for his part in the April 26 incident that took place in the village of Hamdania.
He still faces a possible life sentence as a result of the conspiracy verdict because of the jury's finding that he participated in the plot that led to the Iraqi's slaying.
Thomas had little visible reaction to the verdict. His wife, Erica, and several family members were in tears moments after the decision was announced shortly after 3:30 p.m.
The verdict was reached during about five hours of deliberation by the panel of three officers and six enlisted men.
Thomas, a married father of two young children, did not testify during his eight-day trial. In February, he had entered a guilty plea, but subsequently withdrew it, contending he was simply following orders from his platoon leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III.
Thomas was one of eight men Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment charged in the slaying of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad. Five of his squad mates reached plea deals and received sentences ranging from 12 months to eight years in jail.
Jurors will gather again tomorrow to begin deciding the punishment for Thomas, who remains jailed in the base brig
Notice how they make the dead insurgent out to be just an innocent old Iraqi cop.
After all that’s leaked out about how these Marines were treated while confined for interrogation, it’s no wonder so many of them broke and confessed, even if they hadn’t done anything wrong.
With all that’s come out about the NCIS and the complicity of the JAG in many cases, is there any reason to trust that this or any case against our Marines and Soldiers from Iraq is based on real true fact or any concept of legal justice?
This guy is not out of the woods yet, is he? Good grief!
I wonder what reasons the jurors had in not convicting. Thomas pulled the first trigger. He apparently planned the whole action, along with Sgt Hutchins.
Sounds like premeditated murder to me:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070717-2143-bn17thomas.html
Thomas, who was on his third combat tour in Iraq, had been exposed to more than 25 bomb blasts that would have "rung his bell," said Maria Mouratidis, head of the traumatic stress and brain injury program at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Meant to post this here, but accidentally posted it in the Haditha thread. Post in proper thread below.
***
According to what leaked info I remember reading, these guys were kept in solitary confinement, often kept awake for days at a time during non stop interrogation, denied water, food and toilet during these interrogations, kept in shackles and such.
Keep any of us awake until delirium sets in, and add those other stresses, then confront us with manufactured evidence or invented testimony from others under the same treatment, and who knows what each of us would admit to.
I am a former US Marine. I served as a grunt for 3 years and as intel for the same. I also received a few months OJT with 2nd ITU (Interrogation Translation Unit).
I have some idea on how easy it can be to break a man down and bend him to be against himself. These people were not in the hands of the enemy and had no reason to suspect that they’d be treated like detained illegal combatants of the enemy.
Review the criminal actions and activities of our NCIS in the Haditha case and then ask yourself what value anything brought forward by any NCIS investigation can hold.
Also ask yourself who’d have reason to keep portraying the one killed as an innocent Iraqi former cop, when it is known that he was a local big man in the insurgency?
Interesting. Link?
None available atm. That knowledge has been out since shortly after the announcement of the Marines’ arrests, though.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865746/posts?page=23
This wasn’t the only place I recall this issue being raised. I’ll keep looking though.
Unfortunately, I dont keep long lists of bookmarks for this sort of thing.
A question that just occured to me. Hamdania was a fairly hostile area at the time. How was it that a single squad of Marines were out and about, wondering around in the dark, unsupported and unaccompanied?
Were Marines allowed to leave their area, compound, FOB, whatever, and wander around the AO all on their own?
Nothing about this makes any real sense. Especially the consistently inconsistent “eye witness testimony”.
Here’s a bit more on the insurgent thing:
http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/Hamdania/DefendOurMarines.htm
Thanks.
There’s more out there. I found those with a few quick googles and I’m not the best of googlers.
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