The military’s highest court overturned a murder conviction Wednesday against a Camp Pendleton Marine, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, who has served about half of his 11-year sentence.
Three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found Hutchins gave a statement to a U.S. Navy investigator while in custody that should have been ruled inadmissible and tainted his court-martial.
Hutchins claimed that his constitutional rights were violated when he was held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer for seven days during his interrogation in Iraq.In 2006, Hutchins led an eight-man squad accused of kidnapping a retired Iraqi policeman in April 2006, marching him to a ditch and shooting him to death in the village of Hamdania. None of the other seven members of the squad served more than 18 months.
Hutchins was found guilty. The squad claimed they were looking for a suspected insurgent, but, when they did not find him, prosecutors allege they took another Iraqi man and shot him dead, leaving a shovel and an AK-47 to make him look like an insurgent.
Reuters reported that Hutchins confessed to the crime, but the highest military appeals court threw out that confession Wednesday, saying it was obtained illegally.
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"In its ruling on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces said that in May 2006, a Navy investigator began to question Hutchins but he invoked his right to an attorney and was put under guard in a trailer.
"Hutchins was not allowed to call a lawyer and no attorney was provided to him, according to the ruling written by Judge Charles Erdmann. Seven days later, the investigator entered the trailer and asked to search Hutchins' belongings and the sergeant said he wanted to talk, the ruling stated.
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"The next day, Hutchins provided a written confession, the ruling continued. The court found that after Hutchins requested an attorney the investigator had initiated the conversation — by coming back for a search. That led to Hutchins' admission and the judge and two colleagues found that it violated his constitutional right to remain silent."
Hutchin's family and friends have always maintained his innocence. In 2010, Hutchins was released after a lower military court overturned his conviction, ruling his 2007 trial was unfair because his lead defense lawyer quit shortly before it began.In January 2011, the military’s highest court, overruled that decision, saying the problem was not grave enough to throw out the conviction.
Hutchins, a third-generation Marine, is a 2002 Plymouth South High School graduate and married his high school sweetheart soon after he was charged. He is expected to be released within days.
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