Posted on 08/07/2007 7:38:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAMP PENDLETON – A general has cut short the sentences of two Marines imprisoned in the Hamdaniya murder case and might do the same for two others.
Pvts. Tyler Jackson and Jerry Shumate Jr. were released Monday by order of Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. The base announced Mattis' decision Tuesday.
Jackson and Shumate had been sentenced to 21 months in the brig as part of pretrial deals in which they pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. They were demoted in rank – from corporal to private.
In exchange, the government dropped the charge of premeditated murder, which would have sent the defendants to prison for life without parole if they were convicted.
Before Mattis released them Monday, Jackson and Shumate were scheduled to leave the brig as early as December.
Mattis took into account various factors, including “their military experience, relative rank and position of authority and their specific involvement” in the Hamdaniya case, according to a statement that Camp Pendleton issued Tuesday.
Jackson, Shumate, five other Marines and a Navy corpsman kidnapped and killed a man in Hamdaniya, Iraq, on April 26, 2006. They snatched the victim from his bed, took him to a roadside hole, bound him and executed him with a barrage of bullets.
Afterward, the squad tried to disguise the killing as a firefight between U.S. troops and an insurgent trying to plant a bomb.
The defendants said they partly wanted to send a message that insurgents and their supporters in Hamdaniya would pay a dear price. They had become frustrated after repeatedly arresting a suspect and turning him over to Iraqi authorities, only to see him released every time.
Five of the defendants finalized plea bargains with the prosecution, receiving prison terms of one to eight years. Four of them – Jackson, Shumate, demoted Pvt. John Jodka III and demoted Hospitalman Melson Bacos – had left prison as of Tuesday.
The remaining Hamdaniya defendants went through courts-martial. Two of them – Cpls. Trent Thomas and Marshall Magincalda – were demoted to the rank of private and released from the brig at the end of their trials. Each had spent about 450 days in prison by then.
That leaves two Hamdaniya defendants still behind bars: Pvts. Robert Pennington and Lawrence Hutchins III. Before the Marine Corps demoted them, Pennington was a coporal and Hutchins was a sergeant.
Pennington is serving an eight-year sentence and Hutchins, who oversaw the Hamdaniya abduction and killing, was sentenced to 15 years last week.
Mattis is considering whether to cut short the prison terms for Pennington and Hutchins, Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said Tuesday.
Those defendants' attorneys and family members are asking Mattis to reduce the sentences.
Release them today.
FREE them all now!!! It’s not ENOUGH that we ask these great warriors to go to battle to keep US free now we make them second guess their actions. No this is just wrong and these young men should be given medals not time in the brig and worse. A Marine mom
The defense had evidence that a)the man was not who he was purported to be b)that he was a terrorist. The judge would not allow that evidence to be presented.
The man they were looking for was a former Baathist, and the name of the man provided for trial was a suspected insurgent.
However, due to the complete lack of forensic evidence taken, and the fact that when the body was sent to the US for autopsy it was missing it’s head and the body description didn’t match the ‘family’ description, they could no longer identify who it was, therefore there is no clue as to the body’s previous life.
Courts Martial do not have juries, they have panels, or simply "The Court". The Judge is not "The Court" as in a civilian trial. The board of officers, and enlisted in the case of an enlisted defendant who wants them, is the Court. The Court is also both prosecutor and defense, in that they can ask direct questions of witnesses, unlike the jury in a civilian trial. They are also the jury of course, since they determine the facts in the case and how to apply the laws and regulations to those facts.
Who was it that "didn't allow" the members of the court to know this?
However it's an even bigger no-no in a military court martial than in a civilian one. In a civilian one, the prosecution isn't supposed to do that, but the defense can. IIRC, even the defense isn't supposed to do that in a military trial, as the "theory" is that both side, and the Court, are looking for the truth on a much less adversarial basis than in a civilian trial.
Of course the problem is that the JAGs are all trained in civilian law schools, with supplemental training by the military, by other JAGs that is. Eventually the rot seeps through.
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