RUTHFULLY YOURS

Frank Wuterich agreed this morning to accept a prosecution offer of pleading guilty to one count of dereliction of duty, with relatively minor penalty. “Dereliction of duty” is such a broad count that it can cover most anything, and in possible multiple counts possible in the court martial, could have resulted in Wuterich facing much heavier penalties.
This ends his 7-year ordeal at the hand of zealot prosecutors and rush to judgment media. The prosecution in this case, as in all its others, saw its own witnesses either basically testify for the defense or be demonstrated as liars or otherwise unreliable.
Still, Frank Wuterich, as any defendant, faced the possibility of a worse outcome, what is commonly referred to as “litigation risk.” With not just himself but three young daughters to care about, weighed against the honor of the Marine Corps (although including some who may have acted less than completely honorably in this case), Wuterich’s decision is completely understandable.
As usual, Mark Walker’s report, intimate with all the Haditha cases, covers the salient points:

Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich agreed to plead guilty Monday to one count of negligent dereliction of duty, ending his trial on manslaughter and related charges for his role in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005.
“This was his decision and his decision alone,” Neal Puckett, Wuterich’s lead defense attorney, told the North County Times. “Staff Sergeant Wuterich believed this was the right and honorable thing to do.”
Negligent dereliction of duty is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 90 days in custody and a reduction or forfeiture of pay. It was not immediately known when a sentencing decision would be announced….
Puckett said the resolution of the trial that started at Camp Pendleton on Jan. 9 is a “fair and just conclusion.”
“No one denies that the events …. were tragic, most of all Frank Wuterich,” Puckett said in exclusive comments to the newspaper. “But the fact of the matter is that he has now been totally exonerated of the homicide charges brought against him by the government and the media.
“For the last six years, he has had his name dragged through the mud. Today, we hope, is the beginning of his redemption.”
Prosecutors appeared ready to strike a plea deal last week after a series of their own witnesses gave testimony largely beneficial to Wuterich’s position that he believed he and his men were under attack and responded in keeping with their training.
Puckett said his client continues to believe his actions were lawful, despite the civilians deaths, which Wuterich has repeatedly said he regrets.
“He has always taken responsibility for his and his squad’s actions that day,” Puckett said. “Today’s agreement is completely consistent with everything he has said, which is that the decisions he made that day led to an outcome that was tragic and regrettable, but they were not criminal.”
The plea deal had to be approved by Camp Pendleton Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who is overseeing the case as the “convening authority” under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, under which the Marine Corps prosecuted Wuterich.
Wuterich told the North County Times on the eve of his trial that he was anxious for a resolution, but believed that the testimony from Marines at Haditha that day would show there was much more to the story than he and his squad running amok and shooting everything they saw.

John Lilyea comments about the court martial: “…in regards to the incident in Haditha, to which the entire Bush Derangement Syndrome community had pinned their hopes for this generation’s My Lai Massacre….There was no comment from John Murtha.”

Sentencing is expected this week for Wuterich. Murtha’s death precludes a sentence other than he and the other howling mob that prejudged Haditha rotting in the hell of truth.