Haditha cases losing their rationale

Mark Walker:

Six of eight Camp Pendleton Marines charged with murder and other offenses in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005 have been exonerated, raising fresh questions about whether the prosecutions ever should have occurred.

The acquittal of 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson on Wednesday and the earlier withdrawal of charges against five other defendants also are prompting some to ask if the military justice system is stacked in favor of the accused troops.

Grayson's acquittal came after a Camp Pendleton jury of seven officers ruled he was innocent of any offenses related to his role in the aftermath of the Haditha killings.

The 27-year-old Grayson was accused of lying to investigators about the civilian deaths and later trying to fraudulently get out of the Marine Corps.

His acquittal and the dropping of charges against the other original defendants should cause the Marine Corps to reconsider whether the remaining two cases should go forward, said David Brahms, a Carlsbad military attorney and retired Marine general who once served as the service's top legal adviser.

"If I'm sitting in the power seat, I would be asking my lawyers to step back, take another look and get a second opinion," Brahms said Thursday.

"I would say it's time to get a senior staff judge advocate with an impeccable reputation and experience with big cases and ask him to review everything," he said.

The remaining defendants are Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the battalion commander at Haditha, and Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich.

Chessani is accused of dereliction of duty for failing to order a full-scale investigation into the incident. Wuterich faces nine counts of voluntary manslaughter and related offenses.

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The results so far raise questions about just what Chessani's "full-scale investigation" would have found, since all the cases so far have resulted in no guilty verdicts. With each acquittal Chessani's original judgment appears to be confirmed. Even if Wuterich were convicted I don't think that would undermine his original judgment on the issue.

I think Wuterich has a very good chance of also being acquitted. When you are fighting an enemy that camouflages himself as a civilian and uses civilians as human shields, he endangers all civilians and some are going to pay the price for the enemy's perfidy.