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Banned
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How Will "They Stand Up", So We can "Stand Down", If we kill them without consequence
Do not misunderstand me....our military is "broken", because our president is a war criminal...I believe that the rest of this dysfunction follows from the president's decision to wage <a href="http://forums.abcnews.go.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ABCPolitics&tid=220424">aggressive war</a>
I am doing this thread because I've made a commitment to stay shocked, instead of numb. I think that the most shocking thing is the solidarity of this brutal murderer's fellow Marines, and the officers involved in his court martial.
They seem to be examples in their CIC's image. The question for us is, what to do about our CIC and his phoney, illegal war....as the fallout from it continues. Would impeachment slow this degradation down, at all?
Is there any semblance of "the mission", left? Iraqis must be too horrified by our military "justice", while 19,000 of them are imprisoned by our troops in Iraq, indefinitely and without hearings to answer charges against them, for the most part. This young Marine's "ordeal" was expedited, from crime to release in last than a year.
I weep for Iraqis, my country, and for our troops.
Quote:
http://northcountytimes.com/articles...9112_14_07.prt
Marine gets no time, ordered discharged for killing Iraqi army private
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
CAMP PENDLETON -- Convicted on Thursday of negligent homicide for killing an Iraqi army private, Delano Holmes left a Camp Pendleton courtroom Friday afternoon a free man.
Holmes, 22, was the beneficiary of a light sentence handed down by a military jury, the second time in five months that a panel of Pendleton Marines allowed a defendant convicted in a homicide case to walk away with nothing more than time served. Holmes was held while the trial was pending.
The jury ordered the Marine reservist reduced in rank from lance corporal to private and given a bad conduct discharge for the stabbing death of Pvt. Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin, a man he shared guard duty with at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, on Dec. 31, 2006.
Holmes killed Hassin that morning in what prosecutors contended was a rage, stabbing the Iraqi 17 times, slashing him another 26 times and nearly slicing the man's nose from his face.
In arguing for a five- to seven-year sentence, Maj. Christopher Shaw told the panel Friday morning that Holmes has not shown any remorse for killing a coalition partner and has never expressed any public regret.
"The accused does not care," Shaw said during his sentencing argument. "He has chosen to show no remorse and offered no apology."
Shaw also described Holmes as a "brutal killer."
When the sentenced was rendered after about two hours of deliberation, one of the prosecutors, Capt. Brent Miner, turned toward the base courtroom gallery and mouthed the word "Wow."
Jurors left the courtroom immediately after the sentencing and did not speak with reporters. Nor did prosecutors, who routinely refuse to discuss pending or completed cases.
Holmes, who did not testify during the trial but did deliver a rambling address during the sentencing phase, contended through his attorneys that he killed the Iraqi in self-defense, fearing the much shorter and lighter man was going to kill him.
During his tear-filled remarks late Thursday afternoon, he pleaded for leniency, saying he was a Christian who had escaped poverty and a life as a foster child to join the Marine Corps to serve his country.
A series of men Holmes had served with in Iraq had testified that he was a solid Marine. Each said they would gladly serve with him again.
In July, a jury of Marines allowed another enlisted man, Cpl. Trent Thomas, to walk free after convicting him of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and kidnapping in the April 2006 death of a retired Iraqi policeman.
Thomas was one of eight Camp Pendleton troops who took part in the incident. Only one, the squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, remains behind bars, sentenced to 15 years.
Thomas could have been sentenced to life in prison. Holmes could have been sentenced to eight years behind bars. In each case, their juries decided the time they had already spent behind bars, 14 months for Thomas and 10 months for Holmes, was sufficient punishment.
Gary Solis, a former Marine judge and prosecutor and a recognized scholar in military law, said the Thomas and Holmes cases are the latest examples of military juries showing leniency to fellow troops when the victim is a foreigner.
"Are we at a place where the jury is not willing to convict a young Marine when it involves an incident involving a non-American?" Solis asked.
The decision in the Holmes case is not that surprising, he added.
"The Marines and all services have a sympathy for the accused, particularly when the defendants have not committed an outrageously malicious crime," he said.
One of Holmes' four attorneys, Capt. Ray Slabbekorn, asked the jury to go easy on Holmes.
"One time, he feared for his life in a combat outpost and made a decision," Slabbekorn said. "That doesn't define this Marine."
Slabbekorn also argued that Holmes has remorse.
"He has. You can see that. He can barely hold himself together," he said. "This case is already a tragedy."
The jury could have convicted Holmes of unpremeditated murder but instead chose the lesser offense of negligent homicide. It also convicted him of lying to investigators for giving a false version of the events that led to Hassin's death.
Holmes told investigators the fight broke out after he slapped a lit cigarette out of the much smaller Iraqi man's hands, fearing it would expose the men to possible sniper attack. Before lighting the cigarette, the Iraqi had used an illuminated cell phone, Holmes claimed in statements to investigators.
He said he used his bayonet to stab Hassin because he believed the Iraqi was reaching for an AK-47 and would shoot him.
In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Capt. Brett Miner rejected Holmes' version, saying it made no sense and pointing out the Marine is nearly a foot taller and 65 pounds heavier than the Iraqi.
Oceanside's Don Greenlaw, a retired Marine captain who frequently writes letters of support for troops accused of killing Iraqis and frequently visits men in the brig, said he does not believe Holmes should be kicked out of the service.
"This young Marine was over there protecting all of us ... and what he did, he did in self-defense," he said. "Why should he show remorse? He did nothing wrong."
During the trial, witnesses testified that when Hassin's fellow Iraqi army soldiers learned he had been killed and saw his body, they became highly agitated. One Marine who was at the guard station shortly after the incident testified he feared a fight was brewing until the Iraqis were ordered out of the area.
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Last edited by host; 12-15-2007 at 07:32 PM..
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