The last Haditha Marine: Trial update, prosecution collapse, plea deal in the works?
At the beginning of the month, I told you about the trial of SSgt Frank D. Wuterich — the last of the Marines charged in connection to an alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in the village of Haditha in 2005.
The late corruptocrat John Murtha and the New York Slimes convicted and hanged the Marines in 2006 over the case before a single formal charge had been filed. Murtha slandered the troops before the world, declaring that “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” Then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama unabashedly backed Murtha’s smears. NYTimes reporter Paul von Zielbauer initially filed over 30 stories on the case, which the paper had hyped as the “defining atrocity” of the Iraq war.
And then: One by one over the last six years, the Marines were exonerated.
April 2007: Charges dropped against Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz.
August 2007: Charges recommended dropped against Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum.
August 2007: Charges dropped against Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt.
September 2007: Charges dropped against Capt. Lucas McConnell.
March 28, 2008: Case dropped against Haditha defendant Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum.
June 5, 2008: Haditha Marine Lt. Andrew Grayson acquitted.
June 17, 2008: Charges dismissed against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani.
SSgt Wuterich’s trial has been ongoing the last three weeks.
Captain’s Journal has coverage here.
Defend Our Marines and our friend Sgt. Tim Sumner give a heads-up today that a plea deal may be in the works. The hearing had been scheduled to resume this afternoon, but was postponed until tomorrow morning. The LA Times reports:
Negotiations continued Thursday into a possible plea bargain in the court-martial of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the last of eight defendants in the 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi civilians by Marines from Camp Pendleton.
At issue in the negotiations could be the kind of discharge that Wuterich will receive and what, if any, criminal charges he will plead guilty to.
Wuterich, 31, who was the squad leader during the killings in Haditha, is charged with manslaughter, assault and dereliction of duty. The dereliction of duty charge carries a lesser-included charge of failure to follow a lawful order.
The charges, if Wuterich were convicted on all counts, could bring a prison sentence of 154 years and a dishonorable discharge.
But the prosecution’s case has been undercut by testimony from two of its own witnesses that seemed to back the defense assertion that Wuterich was merely following orders and training when he led his squad into two “hostile” homes in search of insurgents.
Three other prosecution witnesses underwent stringent cross-examination by defense attorneys who doubted their credibility because of their various accounts of what happened on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005, after a roadside bomb killed one Marine and injured two.
The military judge, Lt. Col. David Jones, abruptly recessed the trial on Wednesday afternoon, instructing the attorneys to seek “other options.”
Jones initially set 8:30 a.m. Thursday to resume the trial. That was then readjusted to 1 p.m. Thirty minutes before the trial was to resume Thursday, Jones sent word that the jurors had been told that the next session would be 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Stay tuned to the Twitter account of SSgt Wuterich’s legal team at Puckett Faraj.
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Keeping my fingers crossed.
Here’s the best plea deal:
Drop the case and we’ll pretend it never happened.
Please God let those trying this Marine see the truth and set him free.
May murtha have his life dealt with by God for what he and others are doing with our wonderful military in this whole gosh horrible mess.
Thank you so much Michelle for this up-date. You are the only site that is doing so.
L
Crappy reporting. There are no jurors in courts martial. There is a military judge, and the members of the court.
Guarantee
Murtha is rotting in hell
Hang in there, SSgt Wuterich.
The nightmare is almost over.
They will fold soon.
Only Wuterich and his attorneys know enough to know what’s best for him, but based strictly on the little I know, he should insist that the charges be dropped or proceed to verdict. A plea bargain is a guilty plea. You can’t interpret it any other way.
If they drop the case, he should sue everybody concerned for as much as he can get – including Obama and Murtha’s estate.
No. A plea bargain is when you try to get the best deal for yourself based upon the circumstances.
You are 1000% correct! I hope he does not do this
L
I make no pretense of knowing or understanding Canadian law. By my understanding of US law (but I’m not a lawyer – perhaps one of our resident members of the bar can clarify, confirm or deny), a plea bargain is an admission of guilt, and as far as I know, requires that the defendant so acknowledge as part of the plea bargain.
I cannot fathom any outcome other than what has happened in the previous cases.
Exactly. You plead guilty without contest to lesser charges, but in this particular case, the media would take that guilty plea and hang him in the eyes of the public. They’d trumpet, “Haditha Marine Pleads Guilty in Court Martial!” Even if the only lesser charge he pleads guilty to is jaywalking, that single guilty admission is all it will take.
No, his best option is to force the prosecution to embarrass itself until they drop the case on their own, leaving him without blemish on his record.
Don’t forget that Murtha was a Vietnam Vet, commisioned officer. It’s possible that the power he wielded by a Congress person went to his head. Being he was my congress represntative, I found it hard to have him voted out. He just kept winning by huge margins, so he had quite a hold on that position.
At this point, it looks like the prosecution is probably dropping the Dishonorable Discharge (DD), Bad Conduct Discharge (BCD), and Other Than Honorable (OTH)from their list of options, and trying to go for General Discharge (GD).
GD’s typically carry a post-service stigma that categorizes someone as lower-tier when it comes to employment and benefits.
John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
When this is finished with justice properly served, I wonder if Murtha’s grave will be protected by security, from Marines pissing on it.
Matthew 10:36 ‘And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.’
Argh.
Hang in there, Sergeant!!! No plea bargain, no deal! You are innocent until proven otherwise, including in a military court matial, and so far the prosecution hasn’t made its case. If they are coming to you with deals and plea bargains, it means they are worried, and losing. Just. Say. NO!!!
Who would be willing to risk their lives to protect it?
I’m reminded of this quote from the Code of Conduct:
In this case, it means that you don’t make deals, you don’t surrender, you don’t do anything except WIN your case, so long as you have the evidence to back yourself up.
Hang in there, SSgt…
4 Borders whose to say they haven’t already started…I’m sure there are a few who have gone to pay homage to Murtha already.
4 Borders whose to say they haven’t already started…I’m sure there are a few who have gone to pay homage to Murtha already.
God bless you Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the truth is on your side.
In war people die, innocent people die, enough of this crap and find the Staff Sgt. innocent. Oh, while I’m at it, Murtha rot in hell you bastard.
Yes, there are. Not in every case. But jury trials exist. Defendants are given the option of choosing to have enlisted personnel on the jury rather than all officers. But that usually backfires, as the prosecution can stack it with senior NCOs and make it more difficult for an acquittal.
This Marine should not plea to anything.
That he might suggests he may be worn down by having his speedy trial drag on for so long.
What a disgusting travesty this has been…only made possible by leftists with political agendas.
Support the troops? My ass! They could care less.
On January 19, 2012 at 05:04 pm, squeeze127 said:
He only had a hold in certain purse strings to lavish pork in a way to insure the outcome.
If they drop the case, he should sue everybody concerned for as much as he can get – including Obama and Murtha’s estate.
That may be all well and good but he can never get back the years that have been wasted by this vicious, untrue kangaroo trial. Neither can he get his family back – did you know that his wife left him over the stress of this?
SSgt – May God bless you and keep you and may you never doubt that the people who know your story support you 100%. Semper Fi, Sir!
No plea SSgt.
Thanks for the update.
May God bless and protect from harm all of our fighting men and women.
No, there is not a jury in any Courts Martial. The Court is made of of officers who perform a function similar to a jury, but they are not a jury. They are the Court before which the case is tried. An enlisted accused may petition to have ONE enlisted member of the Court.
Regardless, SSGT Wuterich should hold his ground. They’ve dropped charges against everybody else so far. Whoever decided to prosecute these cases should be sacked.
Stand firm Sarge, they’ll drop the charges because they have no case.
If he is innocent he should not accept a plea deal. Honor trumps everything.
Nurtha should have been fragged by his troops 40 years ago.
I agree with Phil and no noseholding required.
How many times do I have to tell you, quit stirring your beer with your typing fingers?
If the charges are dismissed, will Barry have them reinstated?
Looky here Okie, I only hav hadd Tee Martoones.
I am sure Holder can charge him with violating the Civil Rights of the insrgents and the civilians killed.
Complete dismissal would be a good “option”.
What a gutless brass we must have not to stick up for their own men, and kowtow to the liberal press, and this hate America administration. This prosecution is a betrayal of gargantuan proportion, of the men and women that protect our freedom.
Don’t think even F&F Holder is that stupid – but I could be wrong. These guys in harms way should only have to worry about defeating our enemies and not getting themselves killed – not politics and rules of engagement imposed by empty suits who have never heard a shot fired in anger.
I love Marcus Luttrell. If you haven’t read “Lone Survivor”, you need to. From his speech at NRA. Well worth 10 minutes to listen to.
Me wonders how Obutthead and F&F Eric will deal with the Bradley Manning trial. Can you military types tell me how is it they are only “considering” court marshal. Is that not a no brainer? Why not high treason? The information he provided the enemy certainly put American lives at risk. Aiding and abetting the enemy in war time is by definition treason, no?
The fact that he was emotionally stressed by a breakup with his gay lover should be an issue of deep concern with the demise of DADT. But it’s likely he’ll get of easy for that very reason. He’s gay.
Thanks for reporting on this, Michelle.
The prosecuton must not have a good case or be Nifong-ish at their jobs.
I hadn’t seen Haditha cases in a while, and this just makes me think it was a worthless witch hunt to drum up opposition to the war.
For the record, I ended up opposing this Iraq War in the end because it didn’t meet the just war criteron, but this go after our military nonsense for nno reason needs to stop.
On January 19, 2012 at 06:08 pm, DonkeyHoatie said:
Something tells me job offers won’t be a problem for him… even with a General Discharge.
Bingo.
Charges should be dropped. No plea deal.
We (Marines) have been tuned in to this media witch hunt since the beginning.
Murtha may have been a decent Marine, but he turned into a corrupted politician,
You can pee on his memorial at Find a Grave .com
Several of us already have
SF
Prayers for SSGT Wuterich–and no plea deal!
And I believe Plymouthacclaim is right–job offers are not likely to be lacking….
Don’t be too sure about that, swede. A lot of us on the conservative side believe that being gay is no excuse for betraying your country.
PFC Manning deserves everything that a military court can throw at him. If you want to be treated “equally,” then you get an equal punishment.
Identity politics is a beyotch, ain’t it?
Regards,
Peter H.
Is this a plea deal for the prosecutors??? They are the ones who should face a firing squad for TREASON!!!!!
Cornpone:
Would an M.o.M. of a Cpl of Marines (MOS 03xx) be welcome to similarly register her dissatisfaction with Mr. Murtha – who, in my estimation, has earned being referred to as an ‘ex’?
Stand tall, Staff Sergeant!
Always a Blog Sheriff around to be anal.
As a Vietnam Marine who castigated Murtha when he was here in MN campaigning for the left wing nut Coleen Rowley, I must ask for no plea bargain. Had I admitted what I saw and did in Vietnam… where might I be. Fight this to the end. No quarter.
It seems to me that this court martial is an exercise of stupidity. All the other defendants charges have been dismissed. That should tell the court that there is a lack of evidence. The only reason to continue this is political correctness or a witch hunt, neither of these reasons are appropriate in our military.
And now it’s done, with Staff Sergeant Wuterich entering a plea bargain. He entered a guilty plea for dereliction of duty with all other charges being dropped.
I wish the outcome had been different but it’s over and I hope that Staff Sergeant Wuterich is allowed to go on with his life now.