Court overturns Marine sniper's conviction for urinating on dead Taliban fighters
A military court on Wednesday overturned the conviction of a former Marine sniper involved in urinating on dead Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan in 2011 after evidence emerged that a top general meddled in the case to ensure a harsh punishment, reports said.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Chamblin was convicted almost five years ago and sentenced to 30 days confinement, had his pay docked and was demoted over a video that showed the Marines urinating on enemy corpses, The Washington Post reported.
A new ruling revealed that now-retired Gen. James F. Amos and some of his senior staff apparently tried to “severely and systematically” influence the case to ensure the Marines who were involved in the controversy would face harsher punishment.
Amos allegedly told then-Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser that the Marines need to be “crushed” and discharged from the Corps over their behavior.
Waldhauser, who was investigating the case, said Amos tried to pressure him into issuing the Marines a general courts-martial – the highest form of criminal trial – and threatened to make someone else the authority in the cases after Waldhauser refused to do so.
“I responded, ‘No, I’m not going to do that,’ stating that I did not believe any of the cases warranted General Court-Martial,” Waldhauser said in a statement, the Post reported.
Amos replaced Waldhauser a few days later with another military official, the report said.
Navy Cmdr. Marcus N. Fulton, who wrote the recent ruling, said overturning the conviction is a “drastic remedy” but was needed to “foster public confidence in the … fairness of our system of justice.”
“The highest-ranking officer in the Marine Corps told (the officer, supervising the case) that the appellant and his co-accused should be ‘crushed,’” the court wrote in its ruling, according to The Post. “This is an unusually flagrant example of UCI (unlawful command influence). We find that UCI this direct, and occurring at this level, is highly corrosive to public trust in this proceeding.”
Chamblin said at the time that he does not regret his actions, adding that he would do it again if he had the chance. “[If] anything, it was more of a psychological effect on the enemy because if an infidel touches the body, they’re not going to Mecca or paradise,” he told reporters at the time, according to the New York Post . “So, now these insurgents see what happens when you mess with us.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/10/court-overturns-marine-snipers-conviction-for-urinating-on-dead-taliban-fighters.html
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BTW Happy Birthday to the US Marines
I hope they have thousands more of them all happy.
I'm curious if their ranks, salary and status have been reinstated. And what will become of this "leader"?
Good question.
Jeremy - I "think" that, since this is a Military Court, that the Joint Chiefs of Staff will have to make a decision and have it passed down, as Gen Amos has retired, for the "punishment" to be re-evaluated. Then it will be up to the Court's Martial Board to render a final decision, which could overturn the punishment meted out.
If they are still in the 'corps, then I'm sure they would be made whole, now, as to missed promotions, depends, but I'd imagine if they are moving up to staff NCO, then they would go to the head of the list, too many variables. The general who tried to influence the case should be retired, he put a serious black eye on the corps with his prima dona bullshit.
According to this article they were demoted and confined for 30 days. Usually that would also include a Dishonorable Discharge. With the conviction being overturned, we can only hope that their ranks were reinstated with appropriate back pay, benefits and the Discharge either vacated as a whole and they return back to service or at least changed to Honorable (preferably a retirement) so they can use the benefits they deserve.
It becomes an administrative nightmare with VA and retirement services getting all the back pay that they are due.
The sniper was still wrong and he deserved to be punished. Chamblin obviously learned nothing. If enemy soldiers were shown urinating on dead Marines, what would the reaction have been?
Why ?
The jack of ALL asses was DEAD....not alive !
The Islamic Enemies have done far, far, far, far, far, far, far, worse, making this infraction look like he was giving the dead fuck a drink.
This guy literally stated....."PISS ON YOU !
Love it !
The reaction would have been an awful lot of dead enemy soldiers.
No doubt enemy soldiers have done much worse that that to our soldiers. I don't understand why Americans want to defend our enemies all the time.
I am not defending our enemies. I am concerned that Americans always want to occupy the moral high ground. These types of actions say to the world that we are no better than our enemies. I am a vet, and this is wrong.
Who's defending our enemies? It's called common decency.
Fuck common decency in war, the purpose of war is to kill every enemy that you can. Tell me, what is the common decency in killing? Should we stop using bullets and bombs to kill the enemy? Maybe you would rather we use lethal injection, would that be more decent?
Yes, that's certainly the ISIS and Taliban way. Why should we be any different, right?
I don't understand why so many people want us to be just as horrible as them.
In case you haven't noticed, pissing on corpses is not killing them. Abusing the dead is disgusting, and it's just as disgusting to see American soldiers lowering themselves like this.
How the fuck can you "abuse" a dead person after you just took their life?
As was said at the trial, this was not directed to the dead person, they didn't give a fuck about the dead person, they are dead... It was a message to the enemies who are still alive.
Next time a squad of our Marines captures an enemy soldier, puts him in a cage, and burns him alive while recording the whole thing for distribution to the News media, let me know, ok?
So, when you die let us know, we can all come by and piss on your corpse, after all, you won't mind.
Lol while I see your point and agree with it, in truth once we die none of us are even capable of caring one way or the other what happens to our corpses
Instead, we burn civilians to death in their own homes, courtesy of air bombing.
Are we terrorists?
Anybody remember the outrage when the bodies of MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart were dragged through Mogadishu's streets by crowds of local civilians and SNA forces.
Sounds a bit like what Trump did both in the Bergdahl case and when he fired Comey.