Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times has an update on the legal status of the Marine who was charged with premeditated murder after he killed two Iraqi insurgents:

The Marine Corps has issued what seems to be conflicting statements on the legal status of an officer who fatally shot two Iraqis, leading his attorney to contend commanders are split on the decision to charge him with premeditated murder in the combat deaths.

Last week, the Corps initially announced that 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano faced unspecified charges in the shooting deaths. Lt. Pantano’s civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, told reporters his client faced two murder charges.

But later, spokesman Maj. Matt Morgan, at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Lt. Pantano is based, said the officer had not been charged.

This came as a surprise to Mr. Gittins, who said he has a copy of the official charge sheet signed by a prosecuting judge advocate that was handed to his client Feb. 1. On the sheet, it clearly states the Marine Corps has charged the 33-year-old officer with two counts of murder.

The Corps stands by how it has handled public relations in the criminal case of Lt. Pantano.

Yeah, right. Outstanding PR, guys.

Here’s what Gittins thinks is going on: “I think it is because they are embarrassed by the fact they have charged him with premeditated murder….They are looking for a way out.”

Yep.

It doesn’t sound like Lt. Pantaro is out of the woods yet:

On Saturday, Mr. Gittins sent a letter to Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, the commanding general of Lt. Pantano’s division, accusing the Corps of putting out inaccurate information.

“If … Maj. Morgan’s statements were not a mistake,” Mr. Gittins wrote, “I am writing to request that he be relieved of his duties and appropriately disciplined, as his statements, which clearly were official in his capacity as Marine Corps spokesperson, were knowingly false and made for the purposes of misleading members of the press to believe that my client has not actually been charged with any crimes.”

But Maj. Morgan said yesterday he is abiding by the Manual for Courts-Martial and that the manual does not consider charges official until an investigating officer refers them. That would not happen in this case until a pretrial Article 32 hearing is conducted.

“Although we refer to them as charges, what they are are formal allegations and they do not amount to an indictment,” Maj. Morgan said. “We feel it’s misleading to call him charged, because what it does is jumps too far ahead of the process.”

We’ll keep a close eye on this one.

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Previously: Defend the Defenders

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