US Marine's conviction in Iraqi's murder overturned
Source: Agencies |
June 28, 2013, Friday
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THE US military's highest court overturned a murder conviction against a Camp Pendleton Marine in one of the most significant cases against American troops from the Iraq war.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces threw out the conviction of Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who has served about half of his 11-year sentence.
According to the ruling posted on the court's website on Wednesday, the judges agreed with Hutchins, who claimed his constitutional rights were violated when he was held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer for seven days during his 2006 interrogation in Iraq. The decision is seen as a major blow to the military's prosecution of Iraqi war crimes.
Hutchins led an eight-man squad accused of kidnapping an Iraqi man from his home in April 2006, marching him to a ditch and shooting him to death in the village of Hamdania.
Hutchins has said he thought the man - who turned out to be a retired policeman - was an insurgent leader. Prosecutors accused the squad of planting a shovel and AK-47 to make it appear he was an insurgent. None of the other seven squad members served more than 18 months.
The move is the latest in a series of twists and turns for Hutchins, whose case already was overturned once by a lower court three years ago.
The lower court ruled Hutchins' 2007 trial was unfair because his lead defense lawyer quit shortly before it began.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces threw out the conviction of Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who has served about half of his 11-year sentence.
According to the ruling posted on the court's website on Wednesday, the judges agreed with Hutchins, who claimed his constitutional rights were violated when he was held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer for seven days during his 2006 interrogation in Iraq. The decision is seen as a major blow to the military's prosecution of Iraqi war crimes.
Hutchins led an eight-man squad accused of kidnapping an Iraqi man from his home in April 2006, marching him to a ditch and shooting him to death in the village of Hamdania.
Hutchins has said he thought the man - who turned out to be a retired policeman - was an insurgent leader. Prosecutors accused the squad of planting a shovel and AK-47 to make it appear he was an insurgent. None of the other seven squad members served more than 18 months.
The move is the latest in a series of twists and turns for Hutchins, whose case already was overturned once by a lower court three years ago.
The lower court ruled Hutchins' 2007 trial was unfair because his lead defense lawyer quit shortly before it began.
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