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Old 08-04-2007, 10:47 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Hutchins sentenced to 15 years.

Maybe some of you have been paying attention to the news. This is regarding the marine squad leader who basically orchestrated a plot to murder an Iraqi as an example. I'll admit I don't know much about how the army deals with its criminals, but isn't this too light of a sentence? How does killing a man in cold blood, taking someone's life, only garner 15 years in jail(of which he will probably only serve half)? It seems outrageous to me.

Quote:
Plymouth Marine sentenced in killing   click to show 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...illing?mode=PF
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Old 08-04-2007, 10:54 AM   #2 (permalink)
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1) He's in the Marines, not the Army. He'll serve his sentence in a Navy brig, which is no cakewalk. Ask Jose Padilla about that.
2) Military punishment isn't like civilian prison. There's generally no time off for good behavior in a sentence like this.
3) The jury dropped the premeditated murder charge, so I have to believe that there was something in the evidence that ruled that out.
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Old 08-04-2007, 11:27 AM   #3 (permalink)
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I don't know much about the army or the marines, so you'll have to excuse the mistakes. It may certainly be the case that a navy brig is no cakewalk, but I don't see how that has any bearing on his sentencing. I assume they won't be sending him to something like a Russian gulag, and he gets to live, which is more than the victim got. I'm glad to hear that he'll probably serve the full term, but I thought the full term was light to begin with. To respond to your last point, the jury also convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder. So he conspired to commit murder but it wasn't premeditated which seems baffling to me. There was another article(op-ed I think) that made the point that he would have gotten an automatic life sentence if they had convicted him of premeditated murder, which is why they didn't.
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Old 08-04-2007, 11:38 AM   #4 (permalink)
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albania, I think that you need to gather some more facts before you start to critisize things like this. As it is, you seem to be ignorant of some of the fundamental issues here. I think if you read what the actual facts of the case were, you'll see that Sgt. Hutchins never set out to murder Mr. Awad.
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Old 08-04-2007, 12:01 PM   #5 (permalink)
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I don’t disagree they hadn’t set out to specifically kill him, it was stated they grabbed Awad only after the failed search for the insurgent. Since, as you correctly pointed out I don’t have the facts, I’ll be as friendly and ask you to read carefully. It seems to me that you believe I am somehow angered by the fact that he didn’t get premeditated murder. I am not since I wasn’t part of the jury or a marine I can’t possibly fully comment on which specific charges apply to this case. I was only responding to your point by pointing out someone else’s thoughts. However, not being fully aware of the specifics of this case certainly doesn’t preclude me from having an opinion on how much time one should spend in prison for murder
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Old 08-04-2007, 04:31 PM   #6 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by albania
I don’t disagree they hadn’t set out to specifically kill him, it was stated they grabbed Awad only after the failed search for the insurgent. Since, as you correctly pointed out I don’t have the facts, I’ll be as friendly and ask you to read carefully. It seems to me that you believe I am somehow angered by the fact that he didn’t get premeditated murder. I am not since I wasn’t part of the jury or a marine I can’t possibly fully comment on which specific charges apply to this case. I was only responding to your point by pointing out someone else’s thoughts. However, not being fully aware of the specifics of this case certainly doesn’t preclude me from having an opinion on how much time one should spend in prison for murder
No, I think you're angered by the fact that he didn't get more than 15 years when you don't have all the facts in the case or know very much about the situation at all. That certainly doesn't preclude you from having an opinion, but it does preclude you from having an informed opinion.

Personally, I think that Sgt. Hutchins should have gotten more time since he left his barracks with the intent on killing SOMEONE, just not Mr. Awad. However, you also need to remember that courts martial are not civilian criminal courts and not subject to the same rules that you're used to. The sentencing phase is, importantly, much different than most civilian proceedings, and there has been lots of criticism in the past that it is much more open to outside influence.

By the way, the guy that shot and killed a friend of mine's little brother only got 17 years in North Carolina after luring him into a trap at a football tailgate. Unlike Sgt. Hutchins that guy never left the house intending on killing someone, but Kevin's still dead.
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Old 08-04-2007, 05:18 PM   #7 (permalink)
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I’m sorry to hear about your brother's friend.

I don’t quite see what the argument even is here? Your problem is that I’m not informed well enough on the specifics of this case. I’m sorry, but that’s not reasonable. I get my information from what I read, and I read several articles to see different perspectives, and what I see on the news. You haven’t written anything that has surprised me or that I didn’t know about the case. I don’t see that I’ve made any errors related to the events or facts surrounding the incident. When I say I don’t have all the facts I mean just that, in so far as I only have the information that has been made available to the public and I’ve only spent leisurely time reading up on it(I’m sorry if my previous posts were confusing in any way). If you think that I just grabbed the first news article that I saw because I have some vague crusade against how criminals are sentenced you’d be wrong. What perchance do you find a fitting level of knowledge before one is allowed to comment on anything?
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Old 08-04-2007, 06:03 PM   #8 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by albania
What perchance do you find a fitting level of knowledge
before one is allowed to comment on anything?
Getting snippy is unproductive. I've only said that you're ignorant about some very basic things about this case and that you need to educate yourself. By the way, mistaking a Marine for an Army private will earn you a punch in the face in some spots in the US.

You think the sentence is outragously short. I say find out more about what the jury knows that you don't and then decide if they're correct. Outrage over jury decisions generally means that you don't have all the evidence that they did. I mentioned my friend's brother not for sympathy but to point out that it's a similar sentence for a roughly similar act.

You posted something with the intent of discussing it. I've shown up to discuss it, but apparently I haven't responded in line with what I can only guess is a pre-determined arguement. So I'll hit the reset button: why do you think this is outrageous?
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Old 08-04-2007, 06:29 PM   #9 (permalink)
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I think that this whole problem was caused by the brevity of my initial post. My brain runs on tangents and daydreams. Unfortunately the way I write tends to mimic my thought process and sometimes I’m surprised I can write anything intelligible at all. You’re welcome to discuss the issue at hand how you see fit. I don’t have any particular role I wish anyone to fulfill. I just like reading other people’s opinions.

Coincidentally, my reasons for being outraged are basically the same as yours for wanting a longer sentence. I couldn’t have put it any better than you did in your third post. He went out to make an example out of someone, and apparently in the end it didn’t matter who it was. That type of person, no matter how well intentioned, deserves a long time in prison. I think that 30 year sentence the prosecution asked for seemed reasonable.
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