Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 28, 2006 19:50:52 GMT -5
Not since World War II have members of the U.S. military faced murder charges for killing prisoners. And not since the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War have U.S. soldiers been formally accused of indiscriminately slaughtering innocent civilians.
But deadly prisoner abuses in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the recent rash of alleged atrocities by troops there are testing the military's justice system, and raising the possibility of a death sentence that is seldom imposed and even more rarely carried out.
As the new cases move forward, the actions of U.S. military personnel will be judged in the context of a brutal insurgency that has made every Iraqi street corner a battlefield. The results will face intense scrutiny by an international community that is largely critical of the Iraq war and firmly opposed to the death penalty, plus an American public that has grown weary of the battle.
The Defense Department's modern-day criminal justice system has little experience with the death penalty and allegations like the military war crime charges that have surfaced in Iraq. There are just 6 men on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and no one has been executed since 1961.
If a commander recommends the death sentence in any of the cases, the final decision on its imposition would require presidential approval. Such a choice could present a political dilemma for President Bush or a successor, who might face conflicting pressures to show support for troops yet not condone atrocities.
In recent days, 7 Marines and 1 sailor have been charged with the April murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, while 4 Army soldiers face premeditated murder charges for the deaths of 3 Iraqi detainees at Iraq's Thar Thar canal.
The military also is looking into allegations that several Marines
massacred up to 2 dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in November.
11 other soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan already have been tried in connection with the death of someone in their custody, but none received a death sentence. The one convicted of the most serious charge - premeditated murder - was sentenced to 25 years. Several others were convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, lesser charges.
The new cases present a challenge to the military judicial system because they involve murder charges "in a place where the whole idea is to kill people. The defense is going to show that the killing was within the rules of engagement they had been provided," said Charles Gittins, a military law expert who has defended service members in a variety of cases.
And the jury, he said, will consider the circumstances of combat, the day-in, day-out fear the soldiers live with, and the fact that the defendants lost friends in the war.
"How that would inform their judgment on the merits, it's hard to tell," said Gittins. He said it is likely that all of the jurors would have likely served at least one tour in Iraq and would be sympathetic to the conditions there. The jurors, all members of the military, are selected by the commander.
Jurors won't be sympathetic to evidence a Marine put a civilian on the ground and shot him in the back of the head, Gittins said, "but to the extent that there were collateral casualties that occurred during a room clearing - I'm not sure they're going to care about that."
The trials will come at a time when the U.S. is struggling to improve relations with the Muslim world and needs to demonstrate it takes the deaths of the Iraqi civilians and detainees seriously. At the same time, much of the international community - particularly a number of European countries - are staunchly opposed to the death penalty and have condemned America's use of it. "Generally our military justice system is not what you would call a bloodthirsty system," said Eugene Fidell, a lawyer who specializes in military cases and teaches at American University's Washington College of Law. "Military criminality is at a very low level."
The Uniform Code of Military Justice lists 15 offenses that carry the death sentence, including murder and rape, as well as desertion or assaulting a superior officer during wartime.
The last person executed at the military's maximum security prison at Fort Leavenworth was Pvt. John A. Bennett of Virginia. Convicted of rape and attempted murder, he was hanged in April 1961 after President Kennedy confirmed his sentence.
The Armed Forces Court of Appeals struck down the military's capital sentencing procedures in 1983. A year later, the death sentence was reinstated after the procedures were changed. Since then, no president has authorized the death sentence in any military case.
The manner of execution also has changed.
Documents discovered in the Pentagon in 2003 listed about 200 military executions between 1942 and 1961, including many who were hanged and several who were shot. Since Bennett's hanging, the military brought in an electric chair, which it never used, and more recently built a facility where prisoners can be executed by lethal injection.
The My Lai massacre involved the deaths of hundreds of unarmed civilians in Vietnam in March 1968 and led to the conviction of Army Lt. William Calley Jr. Calley was sentenced to life in prison, and his sentence was reduced by President Nixon. Calley served 3 years of house arrest.
ON THE NET
Military executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center: www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid32&did988
Source: Associated Press
But deadly prisoner abuses in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the recent rash of alleged atrocities by troops there are testing the military's justice system, and raising the possibility of a death sentence that is seldom imposed and even more rarely carried out.
As the new cases move forward, the actions of U.S. military personnel will be judged in the context of a brutal insurgency that has made every Iraqi street corner a battlefield. The results will face intense scrutiny by an international community that is largely critical of the Iraq war and firmly opposed to the death penalty, plus an American public that has grown weary of the battle.
The Defense Department's modern-day criminal justice system has little experience with the death penalty and allegations like the military war crime charges that have surfaced in Iraq. There are just 6 men on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and no one has been executed since 1961.
If a commander recommends the death sentence in any of the cases, the final decision on its imposition would require presidential approval. Such a choice could present a political dilemma for President Bush or a successor, who might face conflicting pressures to show support for troops yet not condone atrocities.
In recent days, 7 Marines and 1 sailor have been charged with the April murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, while 4 Army soldiers face premeditated murder charges for the deaths of 3 Iraqi detainees at Iraq's Thar Thar canal.
The military also is looking into allegations that several Marines
massacred up to 2 dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in November.
11 other soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan already have been tried in connection with the death of someone in their custody, but none received a death sentence. The one convicted of the most serious charge - premeditated murder - was sentenced to 25 years. Several others were convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, lesser charges.
The new cases present a challenge to the military judicial system because they involve murder charges "in a place where the whole idea is to kill people. The defense is going to show that the killing was within the rules of engagement they had been provided," said Charles Gittins, a military law expert who has defended service members in a variety of cases.
And the jury, he said, will consider the circumstances of combat, the day-in, day-out fear the soldiers live with, and the fact that the defendants lost friends in the war.
"How that would inform their judgment on the merits, it's hard to tell," said Gittins. He said it is likely that all of the jurors would have likely served at least one tour in Iraq and would be sympathetic to the conditions there. The jurors, all members of the military, are selected by the commander.
Jurors won't be sympathetic to evidence a Marine put a civilian on the ground and shot him in the back of the head, Gittins said, "but to the extent that there were collateral casualties that occurred during a room clearing - I'm not sure they're going to care about that."
The trials will come at a time when the U.S. is struggling to improve relations with the Muslim world and needs to demonstrate it takes the deaths of the Iraqi civilians and detainees seriously. At the same time, much of the international community - particularly a number of European countries - are staunchly opposed to the death penalty and have condemned America's use of it. "Generally our military justice system is not what you would call a bloodthirsty system," said Eugene Fidell, a lawyer who specializes in military cases and teaches at American University's Washington College of Law. "Military criminality is at a very low level."
The Uniform Code of Military Justice lists 15 offenses that carry the death sentence, including murder and rape, as well as desertion or assaulting a superior officer during wartime.
The last person executed at the military's maximum security prison at Fort Leavenworth was Pvt. John A. Bennett of Virginia. Convicted of rape and attempted murder, he was hanged in April 1961 after President Kennedy confirmed his sentence.
The Armed Forces Court of Appeals struck down the military's capital sentencing procedures in 1983. A year later, the death sentence was reinstated after the procedures were changed. Since then, no president has authorized the death sentence in any military case.
The manner of execution also has changed.
Documents discovered in the Pentagon in 2003 listed about 200 military executions between 1942 and 1961, including many who were hanged and several who were shot. Since Bennett's hanging, the military brought in an electric chair, which it never used, and more recently built a facility where prisoners can be executed by lethal injection.
The My Lai massacre involved the deaths of hundreds of unarmed civilians in Vietnam in March 1968 and led to the conviction of Army Lt. William Calley Jr. Calley was sentenced to life in prison, and his sentence was reduced by President Nixon. Calley served 3 years of house arrest.
ON THE NET
Military executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center: www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid32&did988
Source: Associated Press