He is the last of the Pendleton 8 to be tried or to accept punishment via a plea deal.
Posted on 08/02/2007 2:42:01 PM PDT by RedRover
CAMP PENDLETON -- A jury on Thursday convicted a Marine sergeant of second-degree murder and conspiracy in the death of an Iraqi man on April 26, 2006.
Squad leader Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, who was accused of being the leader of a plot to snatch and kill an Iraqi man near the village of Hamdania, faces life in prison for the conspiracy charge. It was unclear Thursday afternoon whether there was a minimum sentence for the murder conviction.
Hutchins was charged with premeditated murder, but the jury chose a lesser charge for which to find him guilty. He was acquitted of other, lesser charges, including housebreaking, larceny and assault.
Hutchins is the last of eight men in the squad to face military justice and the first to be convicted of murder in the slaying of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a civilian who was dragged from his home and shot . The others pleaded guilty to or were convicted of lesser charges.
A sentencing hearing for Hutchins is set to begin later this afternoon.
He is the last of the Pendleton 8 to be tried or to accept punishment via a plea deal.
Enlighten me here, this is about Sgt. Hutchins and co. conspiring to kill a well-known local gangster in Hamdania whom no-one would touch?
Big news.
Sad news.
Roger that ... Lardass Murtha will be all over the Sunday Talk Shows again.
OH NO!
Very sad.
I’m really beginning to Hate, and yes I do mean, HATE our leaders.
Alas, Lardass’ slander was against the Haditha Marines, not these brave men.
Frankly, I’m speechless. If I say anything, I’ll probably say too much.
Sad day for Sgt. Hutchins and his wife. The jury did show him mercy with the UN-premeditated murder finding. Does anybody know if there is a mandatory minimum sentence for any one of these charges? The article makes it sound like he could get life for the conspiracy charge. He was also acquitted of the kidnapping charge which I believe carries a pretty stiff penalty.
It is time to water the Tree of Liberty.
I hate the fact that our troops are held to such a ridiculous standard of conduct in the heat of battle, but we must legally change those standards, not illegally change the system.
Although this is one of the few times I would fall in love with an activist judge, that is not how our government is suppose to evolve.
God help this Marine on his appeal.
Where the F* do we get these mush-brain juries that convict Marines and Border Patrol agents of doing their jobs? I wish I could get on one of those juries. I’d keep my mouth shut till the end and then, I’ll tell ya’, it’d be hanging time in the jury room tonight. I wouldn’t care what my mush-brain fellow-citizens said. I’d say two words, over and over again: NOT GUILTY.
As I recall, a sentence was reviewed just about all the way up the chain of command. I think it could be reduced but not increased. Is that still the case?
The left chanted "No Blood For Oil" and we haven't gotten a damn pint of it YET! Yet Iraq's new "government" has made a deal with CHINA to help them drill their oil, while our guys get "murdered" by their "citizens" and convicted of "murdering" theirs as if it was for no good reason... What has this country lowered it'self and it's good fighting men/women into???
Meanwhile, we have to fight the leaders of our own favored political party to secure our own borders!!!
JMHO
I heard and now understand the saying, "Why don't sharks bite attorneys?... Professional courtesy."
Sad news for all of us. Why do we even have a military if we persecute them for fighting our battles for us? We don’t deserve the sacrifices they make for us.
The jury consisted of marines.
After the Haditha story was published in Time magazine, a sheik in Hamdania complained that Marines had murdered a member of his family.
With Murtha screaming about Haditha, the Marine leadership and NCIS investigators fell on these men like a ton of bricks. They were held in solitary confinement, deprived of their rights, shackled in conex boxes until the weakest link (a young Navy hospitalman) broke and confessed.
Terrorists at Gitmo are handled with greater care and respect than our own servicemen.
Without the publicity surrounding Haditha, it’s unlikely these Marines would ever have been brought to trial.
There is ample grounds for appeal, if any of the jailed Marines can afford the legal fees.
There is also ample grounds for commutation of the sentences. Though any action on the front is doubtful.
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