Marine Charged In Haditha Massacre Will Not Serve Time

When Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich finally spoke in court he did not address the judge but instead directed his words at the Iraqi family members who survived his squad’s attacks in 2005 that left 24 unarmed civilians dead.

The 31-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine apologized for the loss of their loved ones and said he never intended to harm them or their families. He went on to tell the court that his guilty plea in no way suggests that his squad behaved badly or dishonorably.

“But even with the best intentions, sometimes combat actions can cause tragic results,” Wuterich said in an unsworn statement.

The lone Marine was convicted of a single count of negligent dereliction of duty. He faces having his rank reduced but he will not go to jail as a part of a plea agreement that abruptly ended his long-awaited manslaughter trial.

Wuterich, who admitted to instructing his men to “shoot first, ask questions later,” defended his order to raid homes in Haditha after a roadside bomb killed a El Paso Marine Miguel Terrazas. He said his aim was “to keep the rest of my Marines alive.”

His sentence Tuesday ended a six-year prosecution that failed to win any manslaughter convictions. Eight Marines were initially charged; one was acquitted and six others had their cases dropped.

The plea deal that dropped nine counts of manslaughter sparked outrage in the besieged Iraqi town and claims that the U.S. didn’t hold the military accountable.

“I was expecting that the American judiciary would sentence this person to life in prison and that he would appear and confess in front of the whole world that he committed this crime, so that America could show itself as democratic and fair,” said survivor Awis Fahmi Hussein, showing his scars from a bullet wound to the back.

Military judge Lt. Col. David Jones initially recommended the maximum sentence of three months for Wuterich, saying: “It’s difficult for the court to fathom negligent dereliction of duty worse than the facts in this case.”

Then he opened an envelope containing the plea agreement to learn its terms – as is procedure in military court – and announced that the deal prevented any jail time for the Marine.

“That’s very good for you obviously,” Jones told Wuterich.

Jones did recommend that the sergeant’s rank be reduced to private, which would dock his pay as a result, but he decided not to exercise his option to cut it by as much as two-thirds because the divorced father has sole custody of his three daughters. The rank reduction has to be approved by a Marine general, who already signed off on the plea deal.

Defense attorney Neal Puckett said Wuterich has been falsely labeled a killer who carried out a massacre in Iraq. He insisted Wuterich’s only intention was to protect his Marines.

“The appropriate punishment in this case, your honor, is no punishment,” Puckett said.

Wuterich, who hugged his parents after he spoke, declined comment on Jones’ decision. Puckett and his co-counsel Haytham Faraj, said in a statement: “We believe justice prevailed for Staff Sgt. Wuterich and in turn, he wishes it was within his power to impart the same measure of justice to the families of the victims of Haditha.”

Wuterich directly addressed family members of the Iraqi victims, saying there were no words to ease their pain.

“I know that you are the real victims of Nov. 19, 2005,” he said.

He went on to tell the court: “When my Marines and I cleared those houses that day, I responded to what I perceived as a threat and my intention was to eliminate that threat in order to keep the rest of my Marines alive,” he said. “So when I told my team to shoot first and ask questions later, the intent wasn’t that they would shoot civilians, it was that they would not hesitate in the face of the enemy.”

“The truth is I never fired my weapon at any women or children that day,” Wuterich later told Jones.

The contention by Wuterich, 31, of Meriden, Conn., contradicts prosecutors and counters testimony from a former squad mate who said he joined Wuterich in firing in a dark back bedroom where a woman and children were killed.

Prosecutors argued that Wuterich’s knee-jerk reaction of sending the squad to assault nearby homes without positively identifying a threat went against his training and caused needless deaths of 10 women and children.