Courts Martial

On the first day of court martial proceedings against an intelligence analyst accused of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history, lawyers for U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning said the government was unnecessarily drawing out the prosecution in violation of Manning's right to a speedy trial. Manning has been held in pre-trial confinement for 635 days. The arraignment in a military court at Ft. Meade , Md., lasted 50 minutes and focused on legal housekeeping matters, such as setting a date for trial and requests by the defense for more documents from the prosecution.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and the jurors in his court-martial are all wearing crisp Marine uniforms. All have had combat experience. And all have known Marines killed in combat. But the defendant and those who may decide his fate come from different eras in the Marine Corps mission in Iraq, divided by that November morning in 2005 when 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha were killed by Marines in Wuterich's squad. All eight jurors served after that event, which scandalized much of the American public and shook the Marine Corps.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- The former Marine officer who gave Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich the order to "clear" an Iraqi house near the site of an explosion that had just killed a Marine testified Friday that he expected Wuterich and his squad to "kill or capture the enemy I thought was in that building. " William Kallop, who was a lieutenant in 2005 and is now a stockbroker in New York, said he believed insurgents inside the house were firing on Marines and thus the house could be deemed "hostile.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich shot five Iraqi men without provocation, then asked a Marine to lie to investigators and say the five were slain by Iraqi soldiers while trying to run away, according to testimony Wednesday from a Marine who was in Wuterich's squad. Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz, a corporal at the time of the 2005 shooting, testified that he saw Wuterich shoot the five after they had been ordered out of a car near the site of a roadside bomb explosion that had just killed one Marine and injured two others.

A former Marine testified Tuesday that he and other Marines were justified in breaking into a home in Iraq and killing everyone inside after their squad leader told them the house was to be treated as "hostile. " Stephen Tatum, testifying under immunity, said that after their superior, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, labeled the home "hostile," there was no need to ask questions to distinguish between combatants and noncombatants before killing those inside with M-16 fire and grenades.

U.S. combat involvement in Iraq is over, but the controversial events of one of the bloodiest mornings involving U.S. troops in that eight-year war are now the focus of a high-profile court-martial here. The day was Nov. 19, 2005, when Marines fatally shot 24 Iraqis in the village of Haditha in a failed search for insurgents who had just detonated a roadside bomb that killed one Marine and severely injured two others. An eight-man jury — made up entirely of combat veterans — is asked to decide whether a squad leader acted out of vengeance or was merely following orders and standard procedure when he led his Marines into nearby homes where, without asking questions, they began firing their M-16s and hurling grenades.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Opposing lawyers Friday asked prospective jurors in the court-martial of an enlisted Marine charged in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians a series of questions focused sharply on the morally complex issues central to the long-awaited trial. Will you be bothered by pictures of dead children? Do you think that dead children are sometimes the "unfortunate result of combat operations"? Do you think there are times when it is permissible for Marines to enter a house firing their M-16s and throwing grenades without stopping to determine if women, children and other non combatants might be killed?

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- U.S. combat troops have departed from Iraq, but one last — and highly controversial — chapter of the long war there is being played out at Camp Pendleton. After years of delay and legal wrangling, the court-martial of the last of eight Marines charged in the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqis in the village of Haditha in 2005 is under way — with Marines with combat experience sitting as jurors. Opening statements are expected to begin Friday. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, now 31, was on his first combat deployment when a roadside bomb killed one Marine and injured two others from his squad.

A U.S. military judge set a March 2012 court-martial date for an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas military base. At an arraignment Wednesday that lasted about 15 minutes, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan declined to enter a plea before Ft. Hood Chief Circuit Judge Col. Gregory Gross. Gross granted a request by Hasan's lawyers to defer the plea to a later date. Gross set March 5, 2012, as the start of Hasan's court-martial. He could face the death penalty if unanimously convicted by a 12-member jury of U.S. soldiers.

The investigating officer in the mass shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas, last year has recommended that an Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32 face a court-martial and the death penalty. Col. James L. Pohl, who presided at a military hearing for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, recommended that the American-born Muslim be court-martialed on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Citing "an aggravating factor," he recommended that any conviction carry a death sentence, the Army said in a statement.