Legal Commentary

Marine Acquitted in Charges Related to Haditha Killings

By Jeralyn

1st Lt. Andrew Grayson was acquitted yesterday by a military juy on charges he covered up information from the Haditha killings.

He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.

Grayson, of Springboro, Ohio, was acquitted of two counts of making false official statements, two counts of trying to fraudulently separate from service and one count of attempt to deceive by making false statements. He would have faced as many as 20 years in prison if convicted of all counts.

Grayson was the first to go to trial. Other trials will follow. [More...]

Four enlisted Marines initially were charged with murder and four officers were charged with failing to investigate the deaths. Charges were dropped against five of the Marines.

Still to face court-martial are [Staff Sgt. Frank ]Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., whose charges include voluntary manslaughter, and Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., who has been charged with dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order on allegations he mishandled the aftermath of the killings.

Wuterich was originally charged with 12 counts of murder.

Two dozen Iraqi men, women and children were killed in in the 2005 Haditha raid in Iraq. Four marines were charged with murder, and several more with other crimes.

In 2007, the Washington Post obtained eyewitness accounts indicating Marines gunned down unarmed Iraqis after the 2005 roadside bombing.

Here's more background and all of our posts on Haditha are accessible here.

There were two live children found among the dead. Survivor accounts are here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).