JURIST - Paper Chase: US Marine sentenced to 21 months in Hamdania Iraqi civilian murder case

[JURIST] US Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson [advocacy website; JURIST report] was sentenced to 21 months [press release] in military custody Thursday for his participation in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi man in Hamdania [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] last April. Jackson admitted to assisting eight other servicemen in kidnapping Hashim Ibrahim Awad [Wikipedia backgrounder] from his home, shooting him, then staging his body to appear that he was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb.

Jackson pleaded guilty to reduced charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice in a plea deal with prosecutors. Murder and kidnapping charges against Jackson were dropped in exchange for his testimony. Of the eight serviceman originally charged [JURIST report] in the case, the four most senior Marines still face courts-martial [JURIST report], including squad leader Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III [JURIST report], Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda and Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington. Two Marines and a Navy corpsman have pleaded guilty, and a fourth guilty plea is expected from Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. next week. In addition to Jackson's sentence, Pfc. John J. Jodka III has been sentenced to 18 months in military custody. AP has more.

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