Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: Marines’ Trials in Iraq Killings Are Withering

Marines’ Trials in Iraq Killings Are Withering 
dal NYT
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
Published: August 30, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Aug. 29 — Last December, when the Marine Corps
charged four infantrymen with killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in
2005, the allegation was as dark as it was devastating: after a roadside
bomb had killed their buddy, a group of marines rampaged through nearby
homes, massacring 24 innocent people. 
 
Status of the Cases In Iraq and in the United States, the killings were
viewed as cold-blooded vengeance. After a perfunctory military
investigation, Haditha was brushed aside, but once the details were
disclosed, the killings became an ugly symbol of a difficult, demoralizing
war. After a fuller investigation, the Marines promised to punish the
guilty. 
But now, the prosecutions have faltered. Since May, charges against two
infantrymen and a Marine officer have been dismissed, and dismissal has
been recommended for murder charges against a third infantryman.
Prosecutors were not able to prove even that the killings violated the
American military code of justice. 
Now their final attempt to get a murder conviction is set to begin, with a
military court hearing on Thursday for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the
last marine still facing that charge. He is accused of killing 18 Iraqis,
including several women and children, after the attack on his convoy.
If the legal problems that have thwarted the prosecutors in other cases
are repeated this time, there is a possibility that no marine will be
convicted for what happened in Haditha. 
Nor is it yet clear whether officers higher up the chain of command than
Sergeant Wuterich will be held responsible for the inadequate initial
investigation.
At least one of the four Marine officers charged last December for failing
to investigate the civilian deaths appears to be headed to court-martial.
That officer, Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, commander of Third Battalion,
First Marines, “did not take personal action to fully investigate the
actions leading to civilian deaths,” concluded Col. Christopher C. Conlin,
the officer who examined the evidence. 
But the case against Capt. Randy W. Stone, the battalion lawyer charged
with failing to find out why so many civilians had been killed, was thrown
out by Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, whose decisions in the Haditha
prosecutions are final. Charges against First Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, an
intelligence officer, are in limbo because of his argument that the Marine
Corps has discharged him. 
In a wide range of cases involving abuses by American troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan, prosecutions have tended to focus on enlisted men and
noncommissioned officers — those accused of having personally committed
the acts — not on officers who commanded the units. And while there have
been numerous convictions, there have also been many cases in which plea
arrangements allowed for lesser punishments, or in which charges were
dropped or found not to be warranted. 
The sole officer to face criminal charges in the abuses of prisoners at
Abu Ghraib, Iraq, was convicted Tuesday on only one minor charge and will
be reprimanded, Reuters reported, quoting an Army announcement. The
officer, Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, faced five years in prison and
dismissal from the Army, but a court-martial decided on the milder
penalty, the Army said.
The court-martial acquitted him of the charge of being responsible for
cruel treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib. 
Experts on military law said the difficulty in prosecuting the marines for
murder is understandable, given that action taken in combat is often given
immunity under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“One could view this as a case crumbling around the prosecutor’s feet, or
one could see this as the unique U.C.M.J. system of justice in operation,”
said Gary D. Solis, a former Marine judge who teaches the laws of war at
Georgetown University Law Center and at West Point.
Prosecuting the Haditha case was especially difficult because the killings
were not thoroughly investigated when they first occurred. Months later,
when the details came to light, there were no bodies to examine, no Iraqi
witnesses to testify, no damning forensic evidence.
On the other hand, some scholars said the spate of dismissals has left
them wondering what to think of the young enlisted marines who, illegally
or not, clearly killed unarmed people in a combat zone. 
“It certainly erodes that sense that what they did was wrong,” Elizabeth
L. Hillman, a legal historian who teaches military law at Rutgers
University School of Law at Camden, said of the outcomes so far. “When the
story broke, it seemed like we understood what happened; there didn’t seem
to be much doubt. But we didn’t know.”
Walter B. Huffman, a former Army judge advocate general, said it was not
uncommon in military criminal proceedings to see charges against troops
involved in a single episode to fall away under closer examination of
evidence, winnowing culpability to just one or two defendants.
When Sergeant Wuterich, the soft-spoken squad leader who faces the most
extensive murder charges in the Haditha matter, walks into court here on
Thursday, “all the prosecutorial attention is now going to center on him,”
Mr. Solis said.
Sergeant Wuterich’s lawyers have an uphill legal fight. First, unlike the
other marines who faced murder charges, Sergeant Wuterich is charged with
the close-range killing of five unarmed men who were ordered out of a
vehicle that rolled up near the scene. 
Also, as a noncommissioned officer and the ranking member of the squad,
Sergeant Wuterich may be used by prosecutors to argue that he had a
greater responsibility to discern proper targets and avoid civilian
casualties. He also led the attack against or was present in every house
where civilians were killed. 
But the earlier cases show that the defense has some opportunities, too.
The presiding officer, Lt. Col. Paul J. Ware, is the same Marine lawyer
who conducted hearings for Justin L. Sharratt and Stephen B. Tatum, two
other lance corporals accused of killing a total of five Iraqis in three
homes in Haditha. 
Colonel Ware later recommended dismissing the charges against those two
men, and he has said the killings should be viewed in the context of
combat against an enemy that ruthlessly employs civilians as cover. He
warned that murder charges against marines could harm the morale of troops
still in Iraq. 
General Mattis’s statements expressing sympathy for the plight of other
enlisted marines whom he cleared of wrongdoing in Haditha may indicate his
willingness to see Sergeant Wuterich’s case in a similar light.
Regardless of what happened to charges against the other defendants, there
is still great public pressure on the Marine Corps to investigate and
punish any wrongdoing in a case in which so many civilians died. 
“We can’t say those guys didn’t commit a crime,” said Michael F. Noone
Jr., a retired Air Force lawyer and law professor at Catholic University
of America. “We can only say that after an investigation, there was not
sufficient evidence to prosecute.”
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