CA - U.S. Navy SEAL to stand trial for murder, other war crimes, Naval Base San Diego, Jan 2019

[Gardenista]

Here’s Why the Prosecution’s Case Just Blew Up in War Crimes Trial of Eddie Gallagher

 

[scapa]

^^^

This feels like a curveball that was carefully planned, by a witness with immunity.

 

[Gardenista]

^^^

This feels like a curveball that was carefully planned, by a witness with immunity.

Agree

 

[Gardenista]

Moments later they were talking by phone to the editor of Navy Times, who knew before Scott took the stand that a legal bombshell was about to detonate all over the court-martial case against Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward “Eddie” Gallagher, the enlisted boss of Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7 during a deployment to Iraq two years ago.

Legal bombshell explodes on SEAL war crimes trial

 

[MsFacetious]

Medic testifies that he, not Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, was responsible for ISIS fighter's death

Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a SEAL Team Seven medic, revealed during cross-examination in the courtroom at Naval Base San Diego that he killed the fighter by asphyxiation. Scott testified that he saw Gallagher stab the fighter, but then he himself held his thumb over a breathing tube that had been inserted into the militant's mouth.

The court recessed briefly after the stunning testimony from Scott, a prosecution witness who had been granted immunity.

Oh boy...

 

[MsFacetious]

A mercy killing. This is very interesting.

Legal bombshell explodes on SEAL war crimes trial

Scott’s testimonial immunity likely will be strong enough to shield Scott from criminal prosecution after admitting that he killed the prisoner.

No other evidence apparently can tie him to the homicide. No other witness is expected to utter what only he could’ve known.

But prosecutors and NCIS agents would’ve known about if they’d just asked, Gallagher’s defense attorney told Navy Times.

“Corey Scott’s testimony today was a microcosm of this entire case, a bundle of themes that we pointed out,” Timothy Parlatore said.

“First, the truth is Eddie Gallagher’s best defense. But the other thing is what a botched investigation and prosecution this has been from the beginning and Corey Scott’s testimony today should force everyone to ask deeper questions about how we got here.”

Parlatore turned to a moment in the courtroom, when prosecutor John asked Scott how the detainee died. Scott told him “asphyxiation,” but John never stopped to ask how he stopped breathing, Parlatore said.

“No one ever thought to ask that. It was telling,” Parlatore said.

 

[MsFacetious]

Gallagher court-martial: Pathologist can’t say what killed prisoner

But Scott said he decided to asphyxiate him because he assumed he would later be tortured and killed by Iraqi forces who captured him and brought him to the Navy medics for treatment.

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After the boy was wounded in an air strike — more than an hour before he was brought to the U.S. forces for treatment — he was interviewed by an Iraqi TV news crew. He appeared lucid and did not have significant hemorrhaging, Sheridan said.

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"I can't give an opinion on the cause of death," Sheridan said. "There just isn't enough evidence."

 

[MsFacetious]

But it appears unlikely either military or federal prosecutors can get Scott for murder. And the reason for that goes back to the legal efforts prosecutors themselves made to force him to testify as a star witness in Gallagher’s court-martial trial.

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But Scott told prosecutors and Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents that he didn’t want to participate in the trial and later threatened to remain silent during a Feb. 11 re-interview session with them, a policy he vowed to continue on the stand to protect his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

So Navy Region Southwest and the U.S. Department of Justice granted him testimonial immunity to hurdle his Fifth Amendment protections and force him to talk to investigators and later testify in court.

Thanks to SEAL’s immunity deals, confessed killer unlikely to be charged

 

[JerseyGirl]

Navy SEAL Trial Exposes Divide in Normally Secretive Force

U.S. Navy SEAL's war crimes trial winds to close in San Diego - Reuters

 

[MsFacetious]

Prosecutor tells jury to use SEAL's own words to convict him

They only need 2/3 of the jury to convict?! That is terrifying.
Deliberations continue Tuesday.

 

[MsFacetious]

Deliberations continue...testimony playback

Jury resumes deliberations in U.S. Navy SEAL's war crimes trial - Reuters

 

[PastTense]

"A Navy SEAL was found not guilty of murder and all other counts, except for posing with a dead war prisoner in Iraq, in a dramatic, closely watched military trial in San Diego.

The verdict came after a military jury in San Diego reviewed the partial testimony of a prosecution witness Tuesday before resuming deliberations in the murder case of a decorated Navy SEAL accused of fatally stabbing a wounded war prisoner in Iraq and shooting civilians in separate incidents in 2017."
Navy SEAL found not guilty of murder in Iraq prisoner case

 

[MsFacetious]

I think that was the correct verdict.

 

[MsFacetious]

Navy SEAL Demoted For Taking Photo With Corpse Of ISIS Fighter

 

[Tugela]

The complete lack of martial discipline in this unit is shocking. I realize that military training indoctrinates people to see the enemy as lesser humans so they are more willing to engage in combat, but what these guys were doing is way beyond the pale. Whether this guy personally did all they said he did or not is irrelevant.....clearly it was going on in his platoon, he was their commander and he allowed it to happen. He is responsible. End of discussion.

The whole lot of them deserve to rot in the brig. I sure as hell would not want any of them living anywhere close to my family.

 

[tara83]

I really don't think this man should be allowed to remain in the military.I understand the not guilty verdict but clearly this man has issues and his behavior is disturbing and shouldn't be trusted.

 

[fr brown]

I bet Scott woke up one morning and found a horse head in his bed.

I don't think his immunity deal should hold, but if he was intimidated into changing his story, prosecutors might not want to go after him.

 

[MsFacetious]

Gallagher was pardoned and attended our nations Christmas party.
That was already terrifying BEFORE this new article came out.

Anguish and Anger From the Navy SEALs Who Turned In Edward Gallagher

The Navy SEALs showed up one by one, wearing hoodies and T-shirts instead of uniforms, to tell investigators what they had seen. Visibly nervous, they shifted in their chairs, rubbed their palms and pressed their fists against their foreheads. At times they stopped in midsentence and broke into tears.

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“The guy is freaking evil,” Special Operator Miller told investigators. “The guy was toxic,” Special Operator First Class Joshua Vriens, a sniper, said in a separate interview. “You could tell he was perfectly O.K. with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator First Class Corey Scott, a medic in the platoon, told the investigators.

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In cramped interview rooms in San Diego, SEALs who spoke to Navy investigators painted a picture of a platoon driven to despair by a chief who seemed to care primarily about racking up kills. They described how their chief targeted women and children and boasted that “burqas were flying.”

Asked whether the chief had a bias against Middle Eastern people, Special Operator Scott replied, “I think he just wants to kill anybody he can.”

[Watch a special Times documentary featuring combat video and confidential interviews with the Navy SEALs who accused their chief of war crimes, streaming on Hulu.]

 

[Baciagalupo]

Disgusting. All of it!

 

[mickey2942]

I really don't think this man should be allowed to remain in the military.I understand the not guilty verdict but clearly this man has issues and his behavior is disturbing and shouldn't be trusted.

It reminds me of soldiers who came back from Vietnam, after 2 or 3 tours there. Sent to Vietnam at age 19, 20...back by 24, 25, and they didn't "fit" back into "normal" society.

Training people to kill, and then expecting them to be normal is part of the problem.