Haditha murder probes underway
On November 19, 2005, a Marine unit encountered a roadside bomb, killing one U.S. soldier. Following the event, Marine squads underwent a house to house search for insurgents. Instead, the Marines allegedly killed several Iraqi civilians, including woman and children - some of which were in their beds.
Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum is undergoing an Article 32 investigation for the negligent homicide of two men, a woman and a child, as well as assault on two children injured by a grenade. Tatum claims he was responding to deadly force according to his training protocol during wartime. He claims we was acting in accordance with the rest of his unit, who had opened fire in the area in response to AK-47 activity. Tatum claimed he was engaging hostile targets because his superior - Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich - was firing his weapon.
Wuterich’s trial is scheduled to begin on August 22.
Other cases, however, are unraveling. Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt is charged with the execution style murder or three Iraqi men. Sharrat claims he was responding to hostile intent from the Iraqi’s after one of them pointed an AK-47 at him. Marine prosecutors claim that Sharrat executed the men with a 9mm pistol, however, forensic evidence suggests the men were facing forward, which is inconsistent with an execution. His defense team also notes that three AK-47’s were found onsite, however, it is common place for the weapon to be owned by most Iraqi’s.
The Haditha trials are the largest U.S. criminal case regarding the war in Iraq.
July 19th, 2007 at 8:03 am
There seem to be inaccuracies regarding the statements by LCpl Tatum to NCIS in previous interviews. NCIS, however, does not have tapes of the interviews, nor do they have the AK-47’s found at the scene.
http://dreadnaught.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/haditha-update-lcpl-tatums-article-32-day-3/
yojoe
July 19th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Thanks for the comments! There are many strange circumstances surrounding this case, that’s for sure. Why are the Marines so adamant about prosecuting this so aggressively? How can you conduct a murder investigation without any bodies? At least it’s encouraging to see that the American military is willing to investigate, rather than brush these under the rug.
August 17th, 2007 at 7:41 am
[…] Eight military personnel were convicted of the murder of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. After an IED attack on a convoy killed one Marine, troops from Kilo company went on a house-to-house excursion that ended tragically. Three of the troops in the Haditha case had their charges dropped by Lt. Gen James Mattis, the senior U.S. Marine commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in Camp Pendleton in Southern California. […]
August 21st, 2007 at 9:41 am
Sorry AP/NPR, but you need to get your facts straight. Justin Sharratt was NOT convicted, in fact, he was exonerated of all charges.
August 21st, 2007 at 9:50 am
Sorry. I’ve been going through these to correct “convicted” to “charged” and missed this one obviously. However, this is a rather old post and will not be updated to reflect developments after the fact.