Pat Dollard

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This is just. This is right. This is fair.

I have three words for FORMER-Marine Jack Murtha:

“Fucking apologize, publicly, you bastard.”

Okay, that’s five words…

Grayson’s attorney, Joseph Casas, said…It’s been a botched investigation from the get-go, I believe in the end all of the so-called Haditha Marines who still have to face trial will be exonerated.”

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A military jury acquitted a Marine intelligence officer Wednesday of charges that he tried to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis, including women and children.

Cheers erupted as the seven-officer panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, who was the first of three Marines to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war.

The judge, Maj. Brian E. Kasprzyk, admonished those in court, telling them: “There will be no more of that.”

The verdict came just five hours after deliberations began.

Grayson, who has always maintained he did nothing wrong, was not at the scene of the killings on Nov. 19, 2005, in Hadithah. He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.

Grayson 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.

Picture from Flopping Aces.

A military judge told a jury Wednesday to focus on the allegations against a Marine intelligence officer accused of trying to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis, rather than revisit the broader points of the case.

First Lt. Andrew Grayson is the first of three Marines scheduled to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war. He is accused of a telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from his digital camera and laptop computer.

Grayson’s civilian defense attorney, Joseph Casas, said he was victim of a botched investigation under heavy media scrutiny.

Grayson, who says he did nothing wrong, was not at the scene of the killings of men, women and children on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha.

“Gentlemen, why would an otherwise promising officer make a statement like that? The government’s argument is that it was to avoid accountability,” Atterbury said.

The case, he said, was falling apart, pointing to a move a day earlier by a judge who dismissed an obstruction-of-justice charge against Grayson.

“One of the greatest charges we started out with is no longer there,” Casas said. “It’s like the government ran a 90-yard punt return and got called back to line 10.”

The judge did not explain why he dropped the charge. He told jurors shortly before closing arguments began that they should not infer anything from his decision.

The killings occurred after a roadside bomb killed a Marine and wounded two others.

Investigators allege that after the bombing, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and a squad member shot five men by a car at the scene. Wuterich then allegedly ordered his men into several houses, where they cleared rooms with grenades and gunfire, killing more Iraqis, including women and children, in the process.

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 but remain against Grayson, Wuterich and Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who was the battalion commander.

Still to face court-martial are Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., whose charges include voluntary manslaughter, and 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.

Grayson and Wuterich pleaded not guilty. Chessani has said he didn’t order a formal investigation because he believed the deaths resulted from lawful combat. He has not entered a plea because in the military system, that is not usually done until motions hearings are completed and a court-martial is about to start.

(Marine Corps Times & AP)