Posted on 08/03/2007 10:16:15 AM PDT by RaceBannon
PENDLETON 8 Marine freed after being convicted.
CPL MAGINCALDA IS A FREE MAN, HE WAS GIVEN AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE, ALL PAY, ALL BACK PAY AND BENEFITS.
more to follow
CPL MAGINCALDA IS A FREE MAN, HE WAS GIVEN AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE, ALL PAY, ALL BACK PAY AND BENEFITS.
Sgt Hutchins sentencing still to follow, panel still in deliberations.
Prayers continue....
Wow! Honorable? Wow!
Thanks for the news!!!
Great news!
Very good news!
He really is “Magic”. That’s great.
YEE HAAAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s five o’clock, just got paid:
I’ll be off the next two days.
No more workin’ like dogs,
No more leash, no more boss.
I’ve got a weekend of nothin’ to do at all:
Yee Haw!
Wonderful news! Keep praying for the others and their families.
CAMP PENDLETON — Cpl. Marshall Magincalda was freed today after a military jury sentenced him to 448 days in prison and lowered his rank to private for his role in a plot to kidnap and execute an Iraqi man last year.
Magincalda had already served that time while waiting for his trial to begin. He is the second Marine freed without receiving additional prison time after being convicted in the case.
Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, who was convicted of conspiracy and kidnapping, was ordered by the jury to be given a bad-conduct discharge but no further jail time after spending 14 months in the brig awaiting trial.
A separate jury was deliberating over Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, the alleged ringleader, who was convicted Thursday and was expected to be sentenced later today. All three juries have consisted of combat veterans from Iraq.
Magincalda, talking to reporters, said he hoped to reenlist and return to Iraq for a fourth tour of duty. "If my country calls for it, I'd be glad to do that."
Magincalda, 24, of Manteca, Calif., was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and housebreaking but not premeditated murder. Hutchins, 23, of Plymouth, Mass., was convicted of conspiracy and unpremeditated murder.
The case involved a plot by a Marine squad to kidnap and kill an Iraqi man in April 2006 as a sign to insurgents to stop attacking Marines in the Hamandiya area west of Baghdad. A man was dragged from his bed, marched 1,000 yards and shot 11 times. Marines told their superiors he had been killed in a firefight.
Neither Magincalda nor Hutchins testified at his court-martial but each made an unsworn statement to his jury before it began deliberating which sentence to impose. Both spoke of their religious faith and their pride in the Marine Corps.
"I just like being a Marine," said Magincalda. "I'd like to continue on. This is my job. This is who I am."
Hutchins said that he began dreaming of being a Marine while a young teenager and that his desire hardened after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Magincalda wept and apologized for the killing in the village of Hamandiya and for not following through on his responsibility as a noncommissioned officer to stop junior Marines from being part of a plot to kill an Iraqi.
But Hutchins, showing less emotion, offered no apology. Instead, he spoke of the Marines' frustration at being unable to stop the roadside bombings and sniper attacks. Killing an Iraqi as a warning to insurgents, he said, was "part of our mission" and helped save Marines.
Magincalda said he was grateful to have combat veterans on his jury: "I think they had some true insight into what we're talking about -- what's going on over there." He added that he had no hard feelings over the process and his 14 months behind bars. "It's actually brought me closer to the Marine Corps."
The convictions and sentences will be reviewed by Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, commanding general of the Marine Forces Central Command.
As the convening authority in the case, he has the power to overturn guilty verdicts and reduce sentences. He also could commute the sentences of four Marines who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the case. A Navy corpsman also pleaded guilty, and the five received sentences ranging from 10 months to eight years. All eight defendants were initially charged with murder.
Navy corpsman Melson Bacos has served his sentence and, as part of his plea bargain, served as a prosecution witness.
As the Hutchins jury announced its verdict Thursday, Thomas watched from an adjoining room on closed-circuit television. When the jury acquitted Hutchins on a charge of premeditated murder, which would have brought the mandatory life sentence, he sighed with relief.
"I feel good," Thomas said with a smile. "Oh, my God. He beat premeditated."
The officers who were involved in this travesty should be clapped in irons and busted down to private and dishonorably discharged forfeiting pay and benefits.
I do believe Mattis is 2nd in command to Jesus.
Someone call Congressman Murtha’s office!
The officers that let them hang, YES
Lt Phan’s thumb drive was intentionally destroyed when he submitted it as evidence, and the USMC refused to re-release a copy of the orders to clear up the case!!
This was a kangaroo court right from the start.
Murtha’s comments were about a pending case, Haditha, this one is Hamdania
Once Hutchin’s sentencing is done, it is over...or so they think!
LOTS of people are furious about this, and we aren’t letting it go!
Goddamn right.
GRRREAT news! Thanks for posting.
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