Marine Pleads Guilty in Haditha Massacre Case

Posted on Jan 23, 2012

AP / Gregory Bull

Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich arrives for a court-martial session at Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Jan. 20.

The Iraq War may be “over,” but the unfinished business from years of American occupation still lingers. And a particularly grim chapter from that time, reaching all the way back to 2005, was revisited Monday in the trial of Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who entered a guilty plea on dereliction of duty in association with the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

Some readers may recall that 400 pages worth of classified details from military interrogations about the Haditha massacre turned up in a junkyard outside Baghdad late last year. Wuterich was the last of eight Marines implicated in the case to face charges, and his sentence is expected to be handed down Tuesday.  —KA

BBC:

Sgt Frank Wuterich was one of eight Marines originally charged with murder or failure to investigate the killings.

The charges against six of them were dropped or dismissed, and one was acquitted.

Sgt Wuterich reached a plea deal to bring an end to the most notorious case against US troops from the Iraq war.

He faces a maximum of three months confinement, two-thirds forfeiture of pay and a rank demotion to private.

Before the plea, he faced several counts of manslaughter.

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