No Murder Charges Filed in Haditha Case
Four Marines to Face Lesser Charges After
Two-Year Inquiry Into Iraqi Killings
By Josh White – Washington Post Staff Writer | Friday, January 4, 2008
After a two-year investigation into the killings of up to 24 civilians in
Haditha, Iraq, the Marine Corps has decided that none of the Marines involved
in the incident will be charged with murder. Instead, two enlisted Marines and
two Marine officers will face trial in coming months for the killings and for
failing to investigate them.
The most serious charges have been leveled against Marine Staff Sgt. Frank
D. Wuterich, who is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of voluntary manslaughter in
California next week, the last step before the case officially moves to trial.
Initially called a massacre by Iraqi residents of Haditha and later
characterized as coldblooded murder by a U.S. congressman, the case has turned
not on an alleged rampage but on a far more complex analysis of how U.S. troops
fight an insurgency in the midst of a population they seek to protect.
The Marine Corps at first charged eight Marines and officers with murder
or failing to investigate an apparent war crime. The charges have since been
narrowed to four men in the unit, after three were cleared and a fourth was
granted immunity to testify.
Wuterich is charged with nine counts of voluntary manslaughter, with the charges
alleging that he had an intent to kill and that his actions inside a residential
home and on a residential street in November 2005 amounted to unlawful killing
"in the heat of sudden passion caused by adequate provocation." Charging documents
released this week say he killed at least nine people without properly obtaining
positive identification that they were the enemy in the midst of an attack. 1st
Lt. Andrew Grayson has been charged with obstructing the investigation.
Wuterich and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum are the only two shooters that
day to face criminal scrutiny; Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, the battalion
commander, faces charges that he was derelict in his duty for failing to ask
for an investigation.
The charges arise from the Nov. 19, 2005, shootings of as many as 24 innocent
civilians who were nearby when a roadside bomb killed a member of Kilo Company,
3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. Wuterich and others in his unit killed a group of
men who were in a white car near the blast and then stormed into two nearby
houses, killing unarmed men, women and children after the Marines believed
they were taking fire from the homes.
Public attention to the Haditha case increased in the spring of 2006 when
Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) said after briefings from military officials that
the Marines had killed civilians "in cold blood." The killings are among the
most infamous of the Iraq war; 69 U.S. troops have been charged in connection
with killing Iraqi civilians, and 22 of them have been convicted of murder,
negligent homicide or voluntary manslaughter.
Military law experts said the manslaughter charges reflect the military's
reluctance to pursue murder charges because they are hard to win in court —
especially as military juries tend to give combat troops the benefit of the
doubt. Investigating officers in the cases have recommended lesser charges
because they have found that the Marines determined the houses were hostile and
believed they could kill everyone inside, more likely a case of recklessness
than intent to commit a crime.
"I think it's still going to be hard to get convictions in these types
of cases when you're in a battlefield environment," said David P. Sheldon,
a military law expert in Washington.
Mark Zaid, one of Wuterich's defense attorneys, said the charges show
there was no "massacre" and that the case highlights how difficult it is for
U.S. troops to make tough battlefield decisions. He said Wuterich and the other
Marines were following their rules of engagement when they shot and killed
their targets in Haditha, with unfortunate — but not illegal — consequences.
"Every Marine, period, is trained with the intent to kill," Zaid said. "What
everyone will realize at the end of the day is that the characterization of
the events was nothing like reality, that the training the troops on the ground
received was primarily responsible for what happened, and that the fog of war
sometimes ends up with terrible results."
Brian Rooney, an attorney for Chessani, said yesterday that Chessani's trial,
scheduled for April, is merely a way for the Marines to show they prosecuted
an officer even after they administratively punished at least three senior
officers who never ordered an investigation. Military probes blamed Chessani
and several others for failing to take civilian deaths seriously.
"It's clear now that no massacre occurred, yet this legal fiction is moving
forward," Rooney said.
Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said
that while the charges against the Marines are still "very serious," they are
not "the bang that people expected at the front end." Each charge of voluntary
manslaughter carries a potential maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
