Court Martial Appeal: Conviction overturned in killing of Iraqi soldier

Conviction overturned in killing of Iraqi soldier
By Steve Liewer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Article originally posted at http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/14/conviction-overturned-killing-iraqi-soldier/

2:00 a.m. October 14, 2009

An appeals court has overturned the 2007 conviction of a Camp Pendleton-based Marine reservist in connection with the stabbing death of an Iraqi soldier the year before in Fallujah.

A court-martial panel had convicted Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, then 22, of negligent homicide and making a false official statement Dec. 14, 2007, after a two-week trial at Camp Pendleton, but acquitted him of the more serious charge of unpremeditated murder. He was sentenced to the 294 days he already had served in prison, demoted and given a bad-conduct discharge.

Holmes acknowledged that he had cut and stabbed Pvt. Munther Hassin more than 40 times during a fight while they stood watch together at an observation post during the pre-dawn darkness of Dec. 31, 2006.

But he said the killing was in self-defense after Hassin repeatedly opened his cell phone and lighted cigarettes, causing a glow that Holmes feared would draw enemy fire. He also gave conflicting accounts of the events to Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents.

In a ruling handed down last week, a three-judge panel of the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals said the military judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, made a mistake in his instructions to the jury. The panel said Meeks should have explicitly told the jurors that a claim of self-defense was a complete and legitimate defense against a charge of negligent homicide. He had said as much about other charges Holmes faced.

The appeals court overturned the negligent-homicide conviction negligent homicide conviction and the sentence. The judges told the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which convened the court-martial, to hold a new hearing to reconsider the charge and the sentence.

Legal officials with the expeditionary force were not immediately available to discuss what steps they would take next, said Mike Alvarez, a Marine Corps spokesman.

Union-Tribune

-----------------
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer - court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.