The General Court Martial of US Marine Corps SSgt Frank D. Wuterich ended Monday morning after a plea deal was reached over the weekend. In return for a guilty plea to one count of Negligent Dereliction of Duty, the six-year ordeal of the 31-year old father of three is finally over.
Negligent dereliction is a lesser included offense detailed in Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Dereliction of Duty. Before the agreement, SSgt Wuterich was charged with “Willful Dereliction of Duty,” a much more severe offense. In return for his plea, 13 charges, including nine counts of Voluntary Manslaughter, two counts of Aggravated Assault, and two other charges of willful dereliction were dropped.
SSgt Wuterich faced more than 160 years in prison if he had been found guilty and sentenced to the maximum sentence allowed by law on each count. That option was never really on the table although the specter of life in prison wore heavily on everyone associated with the case since SSgt Wuterich and seven other Marines were charged with massacring 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq on Nov. 19, 2005.
The maximum sentence military judge LtCol David Jones can now impose on SSgt Wuterich is three months confinement and loss of two -thirds of his pay while he is confined. The staff sergeant told the judge he earns $3,486 a month. At risk if he is incarcerated are his three little girls, who are otherwise without a resident parent.
SSgt Wuterich admitted he failed to maintain “adequate tactical control” of three Marines he was leading and made a “negligent verbal order.” While answering the military judge’s questions before the deal was done, SSgt Wuterich said comments he made to troops he was leading were negligent and may have led to the “tragic” deaths of the women and children.
“I took a team of Marines to clear houses to the south of the site [where House 1 and House 2 are situated] and did use the words ‘shoot first, ask questions later,’ or something to that affect prior to clearing or entering there,” he said.
The six-year long tragedy was triggered by a specious story in Time magazine in which reporter Tim McGirk accused a squad of Marines from Kilo, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines of running rampant through two houses full of civilians killing everyone they saw in revenge for the IED death of one of their own. McGirk graduated from University of California Berkeley and is now teaching there with money the university obtained from donors to create a fellowship teaching investigative journalism. McGirk was never at Haditha and relied on two known insurgent sympathizers masquerading as human rights workers for his “facts.”
I think they got this one correct. Now bust but him but no time in jail. Time served should be enough. Anymore than that would have been far too much.
CURT
I was reading at FOX NEWS earllyer that; the judge who sentence the MARINE OF 3 MONTHS IN JAIL , DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE MILITARY DECISION ON A REQUEST TO GET FULL DISCLOSURE OF HIS STORY at the stage of war , in return the MARINE DEMAND TO NO JAIL TIME, SO THEY BROUGHT THAT TO THE JUDGE AFTER HIS SENTENCE, SO THERE WON’T BE ANY TIME IN FOR THE MARINE, that is positive, but he should also be clear of any other punishing sentence. because of the fact he is a hero who took steps to further protect his men
at the site of a warzone
bye
it’s high time the military focus on to protect the one under their command, because we know the insurgents and family where in together as one to destroy the AMERICAN SOLDIERS, IT REMIND ME OF THE CANADIANS stopping to chat of goodwill exchange, by a group of men sitting by the road on the ground, and as they where chatting, one of them came running behind one of the soldier, took a axe under his robe and hit the soldier on the head, cutting wide open his skull and run away with the other, to get shot by a soldier,.
they picked up the wounded soldier and they had to push back the moist soft part back in the open brain while waiting for rescue,
those events happened many times on AMERICAN SOLDIERS LURED BY SOME IN MANY AMBUSH, BRINGNING GOOD WILL FIRST AND BEING MASSACRE FOR IT. WITH UNDERGROUND CLUSTER BOMBS
EXPLODING AS THEY WALK IN A LAND FAMLLIAR TO ONLY THE ENEMIES,
we just have to review the number of deaths on our side, to figure it out fast.