Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Professor Gary Solis testifies at Green capital MEJA prosecution

Professor Gary Solis -- a renowned expert on war crimes, a professor at Georgetown Law, and a retired Marine judge advocate -- testified as a defense sentencing witness at today's Green proceedings, as discussed in this AP article. The article provides this synopsis of his testimony:

Solis, who teaches law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., said facing such stressful conditions can impair a soldier's judgment, especially when the unit lacks leadership.

"It's not long before judgment is degraded," said Solis, a veteran of two tours in Vietnam. "That's what leaders are for. To help soldiers."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice.

Anonymous said...

Clearly, the leadership was to blame. It's a wonder there weren't more premeditated gang-rapes and mass murders.

Anonymous said...

Honestly -- what does Solis offer the members in this case? 30 year old memories of what life was like in the 'nam? I understand that the death is different and that the mitigation in a capital case means essentially anything goes, but as a taxpayer I hope we didn't foot the bill to hear an old guy say war is hell.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to see former Marines testifying about Army leadership . . . .

Anonymous said...

A civilian jury needs this perspective. Good on ya, Gary.

Anonymous said...

A former marine testifying about Army leadership is like a putt-putt champion testifying about golf course design. It makes me LOL!

Anonymous said...

Interesting, but how his testimony is relevant is a bit bewildering.

Not at all meant to take anthing away from Prof. Solis - I'd like to hear him talk on a lot of topics.

Dwight Sullivan said...

Anon 1257 -- there are no members in this case. It's being tried before a civilian jury.