Acquittal in an Iraq Shooting Court-Martial - Updated

Various outlets, here and here, are reporting that the court-martial of Sgt. Leonardo Trevino ended in an acquittal yesterday, marking the 5th time I can count that an Iraqi civilian shooting has ended in an acquittal. This case was a mixed bag because the alleged victim was, by all accounts I have read, an insurgent and allegedly reached for a weapon. However, several members of the accused's unit testified he ordered them to shoot the unarmed and wounded man before shooting the man in the head himself.

I can't cast on opinion on the verdict. However, as CAAFlog aptly put it at the end of 2007, these cases will only continue to add to the criticism of the military justice system as a "benighted system that undervalues the lives of foreign civilians and fails to hold servicemembers responsible for war crimes."

I would like to add the civilian DC's comments after the verdict to my list of worst lawyer quotes. He is quoted as saying, "We've got to stop micromanaging how troops on the ground react. . . . You're always reacting and you have to, and if you hesitate, you die." How does charging a soldier for shooting and killing an allegedly unarmed man in a manner that the government thought violated the UCMJ (not to mention the Geneva Conventions and customary international law) ever fall into the category "micro-managing?" Micro-managing is telling the soldier he can't lace his boots right over left or needs to keep his ID card in his left breast pocket not his right. Even those silly rules might have a place in teaching young soldiers order and discipline. But, I can't see how charging basically an alleged war crime (but charging it under the UCMJ, as it should be) is anything but exactly what the UCMJ was meant to do. It is the example we should be setting for the world of how a military force should be run.

As an aside, on the same day as this acquittal, another Iraqi shooting case was reported as moving closer to trial. This one is part court-martial and part US District court (discharged service member). Also, Haditha shooting cases figure, LtCol Jeffrey Chessani is apparently taking a writ to NMCCA regarding withheld evidence.

Update: Thanks to the comments of SGT Trevino's counsel, Richard Stevens, we noticed that some of the reporting of the comments by Mr. Stevens were poorly reported in early articles. His comments that we attributed to after the verdict were in fact made during his three hour closing argument. For anyone that has ever dealt with the press that should be "nuff said" in terms of deciding whether the quote was out of context. Check out counsel's comments here.