Say Anything Blog

Eight Marines were charged as a consequence of enemy propaganda.  Six have now seen all charges dismissed or have been acquitted at trial by Courts Martial.

Marine acquitted in Haditha killing cover-up case
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A military jury acquitted a Marine intelligence officer Wednesday of charges that he tried to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis.

Cheers erupted as the seven-officer panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, who was the first of three Marines to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war. The verdict came just five hours after deliberations began.

The judge, Maj. Brian E. Kasprzyk, admonished the noisy courtroom, saying: “There will be no more of that.”

Grayson, who has always maintained he did nothing wrong, was not at the scene of the killings of men, women and children on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha. He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.

Outside the courtroom, a visibly emotional Grayson said the verdict was an end to a terrible ordeal.

“It’s finally time for me to get to be with my family,” he said, fighting back tears.

His wife, Susan, cried as she said what she had only dared to think about for months: “It’s over.”

Grayson, of Springboro, Ohio, was acquitted of two counts of making false official statements, two counts of trying to fraudulently separate from service and one count of attempt to deceive by making false statements. He would have faced as many as 20 years in prison if convicted of all counts.

Grayson said he refused a deal early in the case that would have reduced charges and kept him out of jail.

“I was the one that had to look at myself in the mirror,” he said. “To take the easy way out, you are the one that has to live with that.”

F. Lee Bailey (a Marine himself) is reputed to have said that an innocent man’s best bet was trial before a court martial, while a guilty man’s best bet was in a civilian criminal trial.  I’d say that was well demonstrated in this case.

Hat Tip: LGF