Nine children among 16 dead after US serviceman attacks villagers

[stanleywinthrop]

The UCMJ was written as an adhoc justice system which-nominally-should be fairly swift--or at least swifter than most civilian systems.

What seems evident is that for whatever reason the UCMJ has turned glacial when it comes to high profile cases. Wuterich took 7-SEVEN! years to go to trial. Hasan is supposed to go to trial on June 12, 2012--almost three years. Better, but certainly not swift

By contrast, in the federal system the government is required to bring a case to trial within 70 days of indictment. The defense must consent if the government wishes to delay beyond that (in most circumstances).

There is no doubt that Sgt. X's court martial will take years to get to as well. My bet is 5 yrs minimum.

[ganulv]

What seems evident is that for whatever reason the UCMJ has turned glacial when it comes to high profile cases. Wuterich took 7-SEVEN! years to go to trial.

but I am assuming it is no coincidence that Wuterich’s court martial took place the month after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

[stanleywinthrop]

but I am assuming it is no coincidence that Wuterich’s court martial took place the month after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Exactly. My belief is that the convening authority is responsible for most of the delay and the delay is for political, not legal reasons.

Is that justice?

I'll bet Sgt. X's trial is years away as well.

[ganulv]

Exactly. My belief is that the convening authority is responsible for most of the delay and the delay is for political, not legal reasons.

Is that justice?

isn’t the only option. In the real world sometimes the only choice one has is between bad and less bad and at times justice is not the less bad. I don’t know enough about the Haditha situation to know whether that is what Wuterich’s ultimate conviction amounted to but I could see how that might have been the case and I am not unsympathetic if so. Others will differ, but I personally would argue that allowing some degree of discretion is a good thing. Of course, that does open up the possibility that said discretion might be abused. There’s always a dialectic.

[jmm99]

Do a search here at SWC on Haditha to return posts - just now, 175 posts. See Defend Our Marines for huge documentation. Polarbear1605 and I have written enough on Haditha, so one short comment.

BLUF (only my own): the principal recent reason for delay (and when the Wuterich C-M was set for trial) were pi$$ing matches (hissy fits) among trial counsel and defense counsel, joined and added to by the military judge, joined and added to by the appellate judges - the latter won, as they always do. The hearings and trials involving other Marines were wrapped up in 2007-2008.

BTW: I'm not arguing anybody's position here, except my own conclusion (above), based on having looked at all of Wuterich's appellate decisions (and related materials) as they were going down. I didn't see any huge geopolitics or CA manipulation as to the final trial date. Clearly, the case was a political football (including military politics), especially at the beginning. At present, anybody can state whatever they want - informed or not. I don't give a f**k; what's over, is over.

Regards

Mike

Latin ? My, my.