Plymouth Marine Faces Return To Brig In Iraq War Crime Case
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A defense lawyer says a Camp Pendleton Marine from Plymouth, Mass., is heading back to the brig after a military high court reinstated his Iraq murder conviction.
Defense lawyer Babu Kaza said Tuesday the Marine Corps told his team that Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins would serve out the remaining five years of his sentence. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces overturned a lower court ruling that threw out his conviction last spring.
Hutchins was released eight months ago after the lower court ruled his 2007 trial was unfair because his lead defense lawyer quit shortly before it began.
Prosecutors say Hutchins led a squad that dragged a man from his home and killed him in the Iraqi village of Hamdania in 2006. Hutchins said he was not present.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
