"The truth, always the truth--at all costs"
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| 3177 09/02/2006 Marines signal end of pretrial hearings in two Hamdania cases / Two Marines Admit Killing Iraqi Man Mark Walker and Teri Figuerosa / Tony Perry |
[North County Times (Northern San Diego and Western Riverside , CA counties)] Friday, September 1, 2006 Last modified Thursday, August 31, 2006 11:21 PM PDT Marines signal end of pretrial hearings in two Hamdania cases By: MARK WALKER and TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writers CAMP PENDLETON ---- Marine Corps officials Thursday said that pretrial hearings for two of the eight men accused of war crimes will not resume today, and they do not expect court action any time next week. The announcement signals that the cases will be decided on the evidence prosecutors submitted to the hearing officers in court Wednesday. No one took the stand during the abbreviated pretrial hearings for Cpl. Marshall Magincalda and Pfc. John Jodka III, although the hearing officers had left the door open to resume the hearings to hear witness testimony. The government has charged all eight men ---- seven Marines and one Navy corpsman ---- with kidnapping and killing 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad on April 26 in the rural Iraqi village of Hamdania. The men's attorneys and families have said they are innocent. Wednesday's hearings ended after the officers overseeing them agreed to a private review of documents provided by the prosecution, including alleged admissions by some of the accused. As the dust settles following the hearings, a nationally known expert in military law said Thursday that one prosecution move in particular surprised him. Gary Solis said he was taken aback by the prosecution's announcement that it does not intend to seek the death penalty against Jodka, an Encinitas native. "I've never heard of the prosecution talking about a potential penalty and announcing at the start of an Article 32 hearing what it won't seek," said Solis, who spent 26 years in the military, including stints at Camp Pendleton where he once served as staff judge advocate for the 1st Marine Division. "I just cannot understand what the motive for that would be." A Marine spokesman said Wednesday that the decision to not pursue the death penalty only applies to Jodka's case. Magincalda's attorney Joseph Low said Thursday that he believes the same announcement will be made in his client's case. Echoing his statements in court Wednesday, Low also said it was incorrect to characterize the statements of some of Magincalda's co-defendants as confessions, adding that he will contest the veracity of the statements if his client's case heads to court-martial. Along with Jodka and Magincalda, the accused men are Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Cpl. Trent Thomas, Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson J Bacos, and Lance Cpls. Tyler Jackson, Jerry Shumate Jr. and Robert Pennington. Each is slated for separate hearings set for later this month and in October. The men are all from the Kilo Company's 2nd platoon from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton and have been in the base brig since May 24. Much of the evidence in the case remains out of the public view, however the crux of the prosecution's case appears to be statements by some of the accused, as well as from Iraqi witnesses. Among the under-wraps documents that prosecutors also pointed to in court were statements by Pennington. In a telephone conversation Thursday, Pennington's mother challenged the labeling of the statements as confessions. She said her son, under duress, simply signed a statement prepared by interrogators. "These quote unquote confessions aren't confessions, but coerced statements," Deanne Pennington said. A prosecutor's assertion Wednesday that Hutchins confessed his role in the killing of Awad was rejected by Rich Brannon, the civilian attorney representing the Massachusetts native. Brannon said Thursday that his client has not testified under oath to anything. "Prosecutors are always going to say what they want the court to hear, particularly in a case of this magnitude," Brannon said during a telephone interview from his office in Georgia. Brannon said he is tempted to wear a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Prove It" when Hutchins' pretrial hearing takes place, a proceeding tentatively scheduled for Oct. 16. Reached in Florida where he is on a separate case, Thomas' attorney Victor Kelley said he had no immediate comment on a prosecutor's assertion that his client had also made a damning statement to investigators. The Marine officers who presided over Wednesday's sessions will write a report and recommendation to Lt. Gen. James Mattis as to how the cases should proceed ---- options that range from dismissal of the charges to court-martial. As commanding general of Marine Corps Forces and Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force, Mattis is the "convening authority" over the case and responsible for deciding what should happen. Solis, a professor of military law at Washington's Georgetown University, said that even if the reports from Jodka and Magincalda's hearings land in Mattis' hands soon, he does not expect the general's decision to come out until the Article 32 pretrial hearings are over. To do so beforehand, Solis said, could put subtle pressure on the officers presiding over the hearings of the remaining six defendants. "I see him waiting until all the reports are in," Solis said in a telephone interview. "I would not expect Gen. Mattis to make his decision known until then." Solis also had a prediction for the outcome of the hearings: "No matter when these cases are done with the hearings, the defense is not going to beat the prosecution at the Article 32." -- [LA Times] http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-marines31aug31,1,5281117.story THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ Two Marines Admit Killing Iraqi Man The pair are among eight troops accused in the high-profile case. The defense challenges whether the statements were indeed confessions. By Tony Perry Times Staff Writer August 31, 2006 CAMP PENDLETON — Two Marines have confessed to kidnapping and killing a 52-year-old Iraqi man in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad, a military prosecutor said Wednesday at a preliminary hearing. Capt. Nicholas L. Gannon said that Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III and Cpl. Trent D. Thomas had admitted to the slaying, one of two high-profile cases in which Marines allegedly killed Iraqi civilians without provocation. Gannon added that a third defendant, Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, gave a statement that laid out the alleged conspiracy to cover up the killing by leaving phony evidence and filing a false report. Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman have been accused in the April 26 incident of dragging Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home, shooting him and leaving an AK-47 and a shovel near his body to suggest he was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb. On Wednesday, two so-called Article 32 hearings were held to determine whether two of the Marines should be court-martialed. Similar hearings are set for the other defendants in the next two months. The defense lawyer for Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, at the hearing for his client, said he planned to argue that the alleged confessions mentioned by the prosecutor were merely statements given to investigators, not admissions of guilt. Similarly, a defense lawyer for Pfc. John Jodka, at his hearing, said the statements had been obtained through coercion and were untrue. At both events, defense lawyers said their clients were willing to let the two hearing officers make recommendations once they had read the investigative documents, saying that airing the evidence in public could keep their clients from receiving a fair trial. Jane Siegel, the civilian attorney for Jodka, told hearing officer Col. Paul L. Pugliese that reading certain parts of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service report aloud in court could "completely pollute the local and national jury pool. Some of it is very inflammatory." The report includes statements by Iraqis and by the defendants. Any of the cases that go to a court-martial will be heard by a military judge or a jury of Marines. The Jodka hearing was highlighted by an announcement by the lead prosecutor, Lt. Col. John Baker, that the government would not seek the death penalty on the murder charge. Baker said such a request was inappropriate in Jodka's case but did not elaborate. A Marine spokesman said the decision involved only Jodka. The military indictment lists Jodka as one of five troops who fired weapons at Awad. Jodka's second civilian attorney, Joseph Casas, said the Iraqis who had implicated his client could not be believed. "Their culture is so different from our own that when they narrate a story, they tell it in first person," he said, suggesting that Iraqis who said they had witnessed something might have only heard about it. Magincalda and Jodka are the first of the eight defendants to undergo an Article 32, the military's equivalent of a preliminary hearing, named after the relevant section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Magincalda, 20, who was serving his second tour in Iraq when Awad was killed, replied only "Yes, sir," when asked several questions by the hearing officer, Col. Robert Chester, to determine whether he understood the charges and the legal process. All eight defendants are from the same platoon in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division. The battalion was on its third tour in Iraq. A dozen Marines from a different battalion are suspected of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November after a roadside bomb killed one Marine and injured another. Charges in that case are expected to be filed in September. After reviewing the evidence, each hearing officer will prepare a recommendation to Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis Jr., commanding officer of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Central Command. Neither hearing officer indicated Wednesday when he would submit his report. The base legal office will also prepare a recommendation. Mattis will then decide whether the case should proceed to a court-martial, be dismissed or be referred to an administrative proceeding. Besides Jodka, Magincalda, Hutchins, Pennington and Thomas, the other defendants are Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson, Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr. and Navy Corpsman Melson Bacos. Hutchins was the senior enlisted man. According to the charges, Marines stormed into Awad's home after failing to find a suspected insurgent thought to be living next door. Awad was allegedly slammed to the ground in front of his family, and then had his feet and hands bound. Five of the Marines allegedly killed him with blasts from their M-16 and M-249 rifles. An AK-47 and a shovel were left near the body. Hutchins, the squad leader, allegedly gave a false story to his superiors and urged his squad members to say that Awad had died in a firefight. The Marines began an investigation after Awad's family protested, saying he had been killed without provocation. * (INFOBOX BELOW) Civilian deaths The U.S. military is investigating cases in which its forces are accused of killing civilians in Iraq under questionable circumstances. On Wednesday, preliminary hearings were held for two Marines in the Hamandiya incident. Location: Hamandiya Date: April 26, 2006 Killed: 1 Incident: After an Iraqi civilian is killed, there are indications that evidence may have been planted to suggest he was an insurgent. Eight servicemen have been charged in the case. --- Location: Haditha Date: Nov. 19, 2005 Killed: 24 Incident: Iraqi civilians are slain after a roadside bomb kills a Marine. A dozen Marines are under investigation, but none have been charged. --- Location: Ishaqi* Date: March 15, 2006 Killed: 13 Incident: One suspected insurgent and 12 civilians are slain during a U.S. raid. The U.S. military says the civilian deaths were accidental; Iraqi police say they were deliberate. Troops involved in the incident were cleared June 2. *Troops cleared of charges Los Angeles Times |
