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Key testimony and arguments
Day One / Monday,
June 11
Quote from opening statements:
"The forensics in this case dispel the notion that this was an
execution. He's not a murderer. Rather, he's extremely brave."
-- Gary Myers, civilian defense attorney
[Source:
Associated
Press]
____________________________
SSgt. Justin Laughner
HET asset with 2nd CI
HUMINT Co. The staff sergeant was one of two HET assets assigned to
Kilo Co. on November 19, 2005.
There was a great deal of
media coverage for SSgt. Laughner's testimony in the Lt. Col. Chessani
hearing when he said he felt pressured by Lt. Grayson to
erase photographs from his hard drive.
But there was no coverage
at all for his testimony on day one of the LCpl. Sharratt hearing.
Laughner's testimony matched his depositions--that were leaked to the
Washington Post on
August 26, 2006.
-
Responded to the scene
of the roadside bomb with a quick-reaction force after they heard
the explosion at their base a few kilometers away.
-
Testified that his
group engaged two insurgents running from the vicinity while
southwest of the ambush site. One insurgent was hit in the head and
the other was shot in the abdomen. Laughner stated bullets were
striking in front of him and the QRF.
-
Inside house number
four, the staff sergeant testified that he saw many 5.56 casings and
over two dozen which were not 5.56. When asked if they were 7.62, he
said they looked like 7.62 casings but he didn't know for sure.
Two Iraqi witnesses (a
woman and a boy) said they heard well spaced shots from house number
four. The prosecution asked SSgt. Laughner if he heard the shots.
The staff sergeant said no.
A photo of one of the bodies was introduced as evidence. The staff
sergeant couldn't explain a bullet hole in one of the Iraqi's hands.
Gary Myers surmised the bullet hole in the hand and the hole in an
Iraqi's cheek matched the forensic evidence that he was holding an
AK-47 in firing position. SSgt. Laughner said it made sense.
____________________________
Amir al-Kaysey
Iraqi-born translator
(who now lives in New York) who took depositions for the prosecution
in Haditha.
-
Testified that he took
depositions of three widows and a son of the men killed in house
number four.
-
Said witnesses understood
that they had sworn to testify truthfully in the eyes of their god.
-
Acknowledged that he had
no prior experience in taking depositions.
-
Under defense
questioning, admitted that he signed the English language transcript
but did not actually read it.
-
Was steadfast that three
widows of the men Sharratt is accused of killing "want justice."
The defense suggested
that an Iraqi attorney, Khaled Salem Rsayef, representing all of the
Haditha victims' families might have prodded them to falsely accuse
the Marines of murder.
The defense also
suggested that al-Kaysey and the prosecutors, who were dressed in
military uniform, could have intimidated the Ahmed family members into
agreeing with their version of the Haditha incident.
[Sources:
Associated
Press,
San Diego Union Tribune,
North County Times, and unpublished reports from the hearing]
____________________________
Barak A. Salmoni, PhD
Deputy director of the
Marine Center for Advanced Operational Cultural Learning in Virginia
and an expert on Middle East culture.
-
Testified that under the
conditions of their testimony, the responses given during their
testimony, their testimony was not reliable.
-
In Iraq, Dr. Salmoni
testified, reliable statements from witnesses normally are those made
in an Iraqi court and taken after the witness swears to tell the truth
under Muslim law.
[Sources:
San Diego Union Tribune,
North County Times]
____________________________
Day Two/ Tuesday,
June 12
Naval Criminal
Investigative Service Special Agent Nayda Mannle
Lead agent for the
Haditha investigation.
-
Testified that LCpl.
Justin Sharratt passed a polygraph about the shootings.
-
But also testified that
the account Marines gave of what happened when four homes were cleared
by the Marines did not match what some family members of the slain
Iraqis said occurred. (More about this below.)
-
Conducted a hurried group
interview of six relatives of the men killed three months earlier,
rapidly jotting notes of the translation of their overlapping
responses as American troops stood outside, ready to fend off any
attack by enemy fighters.
-
Said witnesses heard shots that were well
spaced as if their loved ones were executed.
-
Claimed the Ahmed family
members' accounts seemed consistent and truthful.
-
Confirmed that Marines
seized several AK-47 rifles and a suitcase allegedly containing
Jordanian passports from the Ahmed compound the day of the killings.
She said her agency wasn't able to track down these items, which might
have linked the Ahmed brothers to insurgent activity.
- Testified that none of the 24 victims who died in Haditha had
any known ties to the insurgency. "We ran them through the database
and all came up as negative for insurgents," she said.
According to the
New York Times:
Ms.
Mannle, the special agent, said her team arrived at the Marine base
near Haditha in March 2006. Marines who escorted the team members to
the scene told them they would have only about an hour to conduct
interviews and collect evidence.
When the
convoy approached the home where four men had been killed, Ms. Mannle
recalled, she heard women inside scream in fear. Because of time and
security concerns, she said, she had interviewed six family members at
once, gathering testimony that would form the case against Corporal
Sharratt.
James D.
Culp, a civilian lawyer defending LCpl. Sharratt, suggested that group
interviews had been “contradictory to everything you have been
taught.” Ms. Mannle said she did not have time to conduct separate
interviews or review her notes before the Marines said it was time to
leave.
She did
not record the interview, she said, because she could not find a
recorder, but when pressed by Mr. Culp, she said she never sought to
buy one from the post exchange.
An
N.C.I.S. spokesman, Ed Buice, said in an e-mail message that no
federal law enforcement agency regularly taped interviews.
Office of Special Projects, NCIS. Participated in a death scene
reconstruction of house number four for which SA Michael Maloney
prepared the final Forensic Reconstruction Report.
-
described finding
blood stains in the doorway, on the walls and on furniture inside
the bedroom. He also testified about seeing bullet fragments that
seemed to come from U.S. military weapons.
-
said he could not
complete one interview of Iraqi witnesses in Haditha because the
conversation was “cut short by small-arms fire.”
[Sources:
San Diego Union Tribune,
New York Times]
____________________________
Cpl. Robert Stafford
Armory Custodian for
Kilo Co.
[Source: unpublished
reports from the hearing]
____________________________
Lieutenant Colonel David
G. Bolgiano, U.S. Air Force
Testified for the defense as an expert on the use of force in combat
environments.
____________________________
Quote of the day: “One scenario describes what appears to be a
proper application of force. The other, taken at face value, amounts
to an execution.” -- Investigating Officer, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, on the
conflicting Iraqi and Marine accounts.
____________________________
Day Three/ Wednesday,
June 13
LCpl. James Prentice
Kilo Co. Marine (did
not take part in the action at the ambush site).
According to the
North County Times:
But
under questioning from defense attorney Jim Culp, Prentice said he
never told the investigators that Sharratt had "made up" that story,
suggesting those words were inserted into his statement by agents from
the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
[Source:
San Diego Union Tribune,
North County Times, and unpublished reports from the hearing]
____________________________
Sgt. Frank Wolf
Kilo Co. Marine,
now a civilian.
-
Testified that LCpl. Sharratt was the best man in the battalion on
the SAW. A 9mm pistol was issued to him because Sharratt was the
lead man in the convoy that morning.
-
Testified that the city of Haditha was a chaotic battleground. The
attacks that occurred on Nov. 19, 2005, reminded him of the battle
for the city of Fallujah in fall 2004. "It was definitely a hostile
environment," Wolf said. "I would put that day up there with
Fallujah -- every guy being sent out was being hit with IEDs or
small-arms fire."
-
Regarding LCpl. Sharratt, Sgt. Wolf said, "As a Marine, I think he
is one of the better ones out there."
[Source:
North County Times]
____________________________
SSgt. Travis Fields
Taught the battalion's troops the rules of engagement. He was called
by the Investigating Officer, Lt. Col. Ware.
According to the
North County Times:
"Don't hesitate," Fields said he taught the Marines
prior to the unit being deployed to Haditha in September 2005. "It's a
judgment call."
Fields said he told the troops that any time someone was pointing a
weapon at a Marine or a Marine believed that they were in imminent
danger, the rules of engagement allowed them to shoot, Fields said.
But he said situations such as the one encountered by Sharratt were
never specifically addressed.
"They were not trained to anticipate meeting someone inside a home
with a weapon," Field said.
[Source:
North County Times]
____________________________
Day Four / Thursday,
June 14
Trent Graviss
Former lance
corporal and member of Kilo Co. Present at the ambush site.
[Source:
Associated
Press]
____________________________
Naval Criminal
Investigative Service Special Agent Michael S. Maloney
Senior Forensic,
NCISRA. Prepared the final Forensic Reconstruction Report of house
number four.
Lt. Col. Elizabeth A.
Rouse
An Air Force
pathologist.
According to the
New York Times:
Government forensic experts testified at a military hearing here
Thursday that four Iraqi men killed by Marines in Haditha in 2005
appeared to have been shot in the head from at least a few feet
away, undercutting prosecutors’ argument that the men had been
“executed” by two Marine infantrymen....
Thursday’s testimony, based on an analysis of photographs of the
four bodies, came from Lt. Col. Elizabeth A. Rouse, an Air Force
pathologist who described the victims’ fatal injuries, and from
Special Agent Michael S. Maloney, a forensic consultant from the
Naval Criminal Investigative Service who analyzed the room of the
Haditha home where the men were killed....
Dr.
Rouse said that none of the bullet wounds to the four bodies, which
had all been shot in the head, appeared to come from shots fired
closer than two feet away. Her testimony supported defense arguments
that Corporal Sharratt had shot the men in a cramped, darkened
bedroom in self-defense and not execution style.
But
Special Agent Maloney, in a forensic report last year, concluded
from blood spatter and bullet trajectories that two Iraqi men were
shot “while crouched or sitting” — one against a wall, the other
inside a closed closet.
In his
testimony here Thursday, he reasserted those conclusions under
questioning by a military prosecutor. But minutes later, pressed by
a lawyer for Corporal Sharratt, Special Agent Maloney conceded that
it was just as possible that at least one of the men had been moving
in Corporal Sharratt’s general direction, or diving toward a closet
that may have contained a gun, when he was fatally shot in the head.
LCpl. Justin Sharratt
The accused gave
unsworn
testimony in his defense.
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“We did not execute any Iraqi males. I'm a disciplined Marine....”
-
"When the insurgent
popped back out from behind the door, I shot him once in the head
and he fell backwards."
-
"As I stepped into
the doorway, to my front was another insurgent with his AK-47
waist level as though he had just completed racking it. I
immediately fired at his head and chest. ... After shooting him, I
continued to shoot the other individuals in the room."
-
"I kept firing until
my magazine was empty, because I didn't know if they had body
armor on or suicide vests"
-
"(I) would not change any of the
decisions I made that day. I would rather be tried by a
jury of my peers than be carried by six of my friends in a casket.”
-
“Nobody could really understand combat until they've been there.”
[Source:
Associated Press]
____________________________
Day Five / Friday,
June 15
Lt. Col. Paul Ware
Investigating
officer.
From the
North County Times:
The officer in charge of a military hearing expressed serious doubts
Friday about the government's prosecution of Lance Cpl. Justin
Sharratt....
Lt. Col. Paul Ware, who will recommend whether to send Sharratt to
trial, challenged the prosecution, saying the government's theory of
the case do not warrant the three counts of unpremeditated murder
filed against Sharratt in December.
"The account you want me to believe does not support unpremeditated
murder," Ware told the lead prosecutor, Maj. Daren Erickson. "Your
theories don't match the reason you say we should go to trial."....
Ware also suggested he is inclined to believe Sharratt, who
maintains the first two men he shot were pointing AK-47 rifles at
him, and that the killings were carried out in self-defense.
"To me it seems the most important issue is whether the Marines
perceived a hostile threat," Ware said. "It comes down to
credibility to determine if this case should go to trial."
Prosecutors filed charges against Sharratt based on interviews with
relatives of the slain men, who contended they did not have any
weapons and were herded into the room and shot in rapid succession.
In a statement he read to Ware on Thursday, Sharratt said that story
is false and that the killings stemmed from his belief his life was
in danger.
"I would not change any of the decisions I made that afternoon,"
Sharratt said.
Prosecutors agreed Friday that the case centers solely on the
competing versions of events. The discrepancy among accounts is
enough to warrant the case going to trial, Erickson told Ware.
"The seminal issue in this case is did the Iraqis have AK-47s?"
Erickson said. "The issues in this case are best resolved before a
trier of fact."
Ware seemed disinclined to order a trial, however, questioning
whether any Iraqis would be willing to come to the U.S. to testify
at trial if one is ordered.
Even so, Ware said forensic evidence presented by agents from the
Naval Criminal Investigative Service who found multiple bullet holes
in the walls and curtains of the room does not suggest
execution-style killings.
"What the evidence points to is that the version of the Iraqis isn't
really supported," Ware said.
And in closing...
From the
North County Times:
Defense attorney James Culp centered his summation, which is similar
to a closing argument, on the forensic evidence, saying it fully
supports Sharratt's account. The Marine told Ware on Thursday that
he emptied his 9mm pistol in the process of shooting the three men.
When his clip was emptied, Wuterich followed into the room, shooting
a fourth man with his M-16 rifle.
"The most important element is the forensics," Culp said. "The
evidence completely corroborates Lance Cpl. Sharratt's story."
Culp also suggested that the prosecution of his client is colored by
politics surrounding the civilian deaths in Haditha, which generated
worldwide condemnation when first reported by Time magazine in March
2006. Until then, the Marine Corps maintained the civilians died
when caught up in a bombing and in crossfire from a small-arms
attack on the troops.
"This is a new kind of war, and this case is a result of the new
kind of warfare," Culp said, referring to insurgents who do not wear
uniforms and mix within the civilian population. "There's also
politics involved here, and the politics of the war is tearing at
this nation."....
Culp suggested Sharratt was unfairly lumped into the cases involving
the other civilian deaths.
"He charged into that room at great risk to his own safety and
killed those men before they killed him. He deserves a medal," the
attorney said.
Ware said he will issue his recommendation about whether to send
Sharratt to trial to Lt. Gen. James Mattis by July 1. Mattis is in
charge of the case as head of Marine forces in the Middle East.
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the general can accept
or reject the hearing officer's recommendation.
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