Marines order two more Haditha trials
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson latest to face court-martials for Iraq killings | ∞
CAMP PENDLETON ---- Two more Marines will face court-martial in the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005, raising to four the number of troops involved in the incident who have been ordered to trial.
Marine Corps officials on Monday said Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland has directed Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich be tried on nine counts of voluntary manslaughter, as well as charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and obstruction of justice.
A Connecticut native, the 27-year-old Wuterich also is charged with dereliction of duty.
Helland also has ordered 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, 26, to trial on charges of obstructing justice, lying to investigators and fraudulently attempting to get out of the Marine Corps.
Wuterich led a squad from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment's Kilo Company in a house-to-house search following an early-morning roadside bombing on Nov. 19, 2005, that destroyed a Humvee, killing one Marine and injuring two others.
During those searches, 19 Iraqis, including several women and children, were killed. Five men who emerged from a car moments after the bomb went off also were killed.
Military juries at Camp Pendleton in recent cases involving the deaths of Iraqis have convicted all the defendants but handed down light sentences of bad conduct discharges and reductions in rank.
Wuterich's attorney Neal Puckett said he believes his client will be exonerated.
"It is always disappointing when professional military prosecutors profess to want to do the right thing ... but refuse to give Marines under attack in combat the benefit of the doubt that they responded according to their training," Puckett said during a telephone interview.
Puckett has asked that Wuterich be arraigned next week and tried as soon as possible.
"We are confident that a military jury will acquit Staff Sergeant Wuterich because he is in fact not guilty," the attorney said.
Wuterich could be sentenced to as many as 160 years in prison and given a dishonorable discharge if convicted on all counts.
Grayson, whose obstruction charge stems from his order that photographs of the killing scene be destroyed, said through his attorney Joseph Casas that he was disappointed but not surprised.
"This past year has been a crucible for my family and I, but we're confident that 2008 will bring good things ---- including my full acquittal," the Ohio native said in a prepared statement provided by the attorney.
Grayson faces 10 years in prison and dismissal from the service if convicted on the obstruction of justice charge. (A dereliction of duty charge also filed against him was dismissed.)
Wuterich and Grayson join Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani and Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum in facing trials at Camp Pendleton later this year for their actions after the Haditha roadside bombing.
Tatum, 26, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment and faces up to 19 years in prison. He is slated to go on trial in the spring.
Chessani was the battalion commander at Haditha until being relieved from that command when the unit returned to Camp Pendleton in April 2006. He was charged on Dec. 21 of that year with dereliction of duty for failing to fully investigate the incident.
The crux of the case against the 43-year-old Chessani is that he ignored a possible violation of the laws of war. The veteran of three Iraq deployments and Bronze Star medal recipient faces up to 30 months in prison and a dismissal from the service if convicted.
Chessani is scheduled to go on trial in April. He and his attorneys maintain that he reviewed the incident and reported it up the chain of command and none of his superiors deemed a full-scale investigation was warranted.
Military law experts said they weren't surprised by Helland's decision regarding Wuterich and Tatum. Helland is the convening authority over the case as head of Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force and commander of Marines throughout the Middle East.
"This is a tough incident to deal with, and, by sending Sergeant Wuterich to trial, the Marine Corps is saying, 'We have got to air this publicly and let a jury decide,' " said Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor and director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security.
"Military justice is meant to be applicable in times of peace and war, and when there is an incident like the one at Haditha where a lot of people got killed and whether the amount of force used was appropriate, you have to apply the law and let a jury decide," he said.
Thad Coakley, a former Marine prosecutor who served as a legal adviser in Iraq, said he believes that Wuterich and Tatum have a good shot at being acquitted.
"The government has to establish that they knew what they were doing was wrong," he said. "They now have the opportunity to show a jury that they believed they were doing what they believed they needed to and while it may have led to mistaken deaths, their actions were reasonable under the circumstances."
Marine Corps officials said at the time of the incident that 15 civilians died as a result of the bomb explosion. The Corps did not correct the number of deaths nor the manner of death for several weeks.
The Haditha killings spawned an international outcry when they came to light in a Time magazine report several months after the killings.
The Marine Corps originally charged four enlisted men and four officers with criminal wrongdoing at Haditha. Charges were subsequently dropped against two of the enlisted men and two of the officers.
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said the Marines had killed in "cold blood" and that the incident stemmed from an overstressed force. His remarks resulted in a libel suit filed against him by Wuterich, a case that is now wending it way through federal court in Washington.
Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
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