Three more Marines' charges and fates

[thedrifter]

Three more Marines' charges and fates

By Aamer Madhani

January 20, 2008


As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched on, military juries are increasingly made up of combat veterans who seem sympathetic to their peers even if they find them guilty of criminal misconduct, military law experts say.

In the brig at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes shared living space with three other Marines who were waiting trial in one of the most high-profile cases involving the killing of an Iraqi.

Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas, of Madison, Ill., was convicted in July of kidnapping and conspiring to kill an unarmed man in the Iraqi town of Hamdania. In the court-martial, it was revealed that Thomas fired three bullets into the victim -- an Iraqi civilian who was swept up by the unit as they hunted in vain in the village for an insurgent. The Marines planted a weapon and displayed his body in a hole to make it appear as if he was setting a roadside bomb.

Thomas faced life in the brig, but the jury -- all nine of whom had served in Iraq -- decided that Thomas deserved no further time incarcerated beyond the 14 months he had spent in the brig awaiting trial. Thomas, who was also convicted of giving a false statement, also received a bad conduct discharge.

Similarly, a jury that found Cpl. Marshall Magincalda guilty, also implicated in the Hamdania incident, released the Marine with a sentence of time served after he spent 448 days in the brig. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, larceny and housebreaking. He also received a bad conduct discharge.

The third Marine involved in the Hamdania case that Holmes bunked with, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, was not so lucky. Hutchins, who was said to be the ring leader in the case, was convicted of murder and received a 15-year-sentence.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Jan. 19, 2008, 11:37PM
Marine's case highlights tough prosecutorial stance
But punishment shows how lenient military jurors can be toward cohorts

By AAMER MADHANI
Chicago Tribune

OCEANSIDE, CALIF. — Soon after Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, a young Marine reservist from Indiana, was ordered to sentry duty on New Year's Eve 2006, the Iraqi soldier he was partnered with opened a cell phone that illuminated their area, then lit a cigarette.

Holmes, 22, terrified that an enemy sniper could use the red ember to zero in on their location, told the Iraqi to put out the cigarette. The Iraqi soldier, Muther Jasem Muhammed Hassin, laughed at him, Holmes said, so he knocked the cigarette out of Hassin's mouth.

That prompted Hassin to attack him, Holmes said. He tried to push Hassin away, but he saw the Iraqi going for his weapon and he reached for his own bayonet.

An autopsy later revealed that Hassin suffered 17 stab wounds and 26 other gashes.

"There was no other option," explained Holmes late last month, in his first media interview since his military trial, which led to a conviction for negligent homicide and making a false official statement. "It was a step-by-step escalation of force. The whole situation was, he does something and I had to respond. This was not a case of me going out in some kind of rage and killing this man."

Some 'overzealousness'
The case has reignited a debate about how hard the U.S. command is going after its own troops and how willing military jurors are to punish a fellow warrior.


Some believe military officials came down hard on Holmes, and on other troops involved in killings of Iraqis, to show Iraq the U.S. is willing to punish its own. Others say juries have chosen to punish Holmes and others found guilty of serious crimes in Iraq leniently.

Throughout the war, military juries have shown leniency to their convicted brothers-in-arms, according to military law experts. It's a tacit acknowledgment that in a complicated battlefield, right and wrong is rarely black and white.

Dozens of blogs and Web sites have sprouted to argue the case of U.S. service members, including Holmes.

David Allender, a New York book editor who has taken up the cause of eight Marines charged in the November 2005 killings of 24 Iraq civilians in Haditha, said he understands that "military justice is an instrument of military discipline, and undisciplined troops can defeat a nation's purpose."

But, he added, "Right now, I think there is a lot of overzealousness on the part of (military) prosecutors and investigators who want to show the chain of command they are doing their part in the war on terrorism rather than searching for the truth."

Influenced by Haditha


About 10 days before Hassin's death, official charges had been proffered against several Marines implicated in the Haditha killings and suspected cover-up. Marine commanders were criticized for not gathering evidence in Haditha until months after the incident.

"The political situation following Haditha and some of the other investigations seems to have really affected Del's case," said Holmes' foster mother, Jenni Crowley, who launched an Internet campaign that generated hundreds of letters supporting Holmes. "It felt like they were trying to make an example of him, even though the evidence showed this clearly wasn't murder."

Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps judge advocate and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, said he has noticed the Marine Corps has been more aggressive over the past two years in prosecutions.

But the same jury of Marines that found Holmes guilty sentenced him to no confinement with a bad conduct discharge — far short of the murder conviction prosecutors sought, which would have come with a maximum sentence of life in the brig.

Ellie