Patterico's Pontifications

7/2/2019

Follow Up: Navy Seal Trial

Filed under: Law — DRJ @ 4:25 pm



Following up on an earlier post, the Navy Seal tried for murder in the death of an ISIS fighter in Iraq has been acquitted on most charges:

SAN DIEGO — Navy SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher was acquitted Tuesday on all murder charges, witness intimidation charges, and assault charges related to a 2017 deployment in Iraq.

A seven member jury panel acquitted him on all but one count in one of the most closely watched military trials in the country.

The jury convicted Gallagher on a single count related to Gallagher taking pictures alongside an Iraqi fighter’s corpse, which is the kind of charge that carries a maximum punishment of four months, court observers said.

— DRJ

11 Responses to “Follow Up: Navy Seal Trial”

  1. The fix was in. Why did they even go through the motions to begin with? A field commander who wanted him out?

    nk (dbc370) — 7/2/2019 @ 4:34 pm

  2. I think his men were the guiding force.

    DRJ (15874d) — 7/2/2019 @ 4:40 pm

  3. I think it is very civilized of the US to treat the wounds of a captured illegal combatant who could be shot out-of-hand under the Geneva Convention for failure to obey ANY of the conditions required for protection thereunder, including giving quarter oneself.

    Kevin M (61459c) — 7/2/2019 @ 9:50 pm

  4. “I think it is very civilized of the US to treat the wounds of a captured illegal combatant”

    How would your rank the civility of the other charges?

    Gallagher’s other charges stemmed from allegations from platoon snipers who said he routinely took shots at civilian non-combatants from one of two bombed-out sniper towers during deployment. The towers were just east of the Tigris River and gave the SEALs a position from which to engage ISIS across the river in “old” Mosul.

    Three SEALs said they saw Gallagher shoot two unarmed civilians — an old man and a young girl — and a fourth, who was with Gallagher in his tower, said the chief told him he had shot a girl.

    Davethulhu (bc6fa6) — 7/2/2019 @ 9:58 pm

  5. I think it was very civilized of his team members to report him and not frag him.

    nk (dbc370) — 7/2/2019 @ 10:56 pm

  6. He was on his way to head the training command,

    Narciso (d68160) — 7/3/2019 @ 4:32 am

  7. ? A chief petty officer is an E-7, the equivalent of a first sergeant in the Army or a gunnery sergeant in the Marines. The current head of the Special Warfare Command is a rear admiral.

    nk (dbc370) — 7/3/2019 @ 6:41 am

  8. It was a position of authority, what cam I tell you.

    Narciso (d68160) — 7/3/2019 @ 6:45 am

  9. Davethulhu,

    How would your rank the civility of the other charges?

    The operative word being “charges.” The JAG failed to secure a conviction. Given the way in which a Courts Martial is conducted, and the availability of non-judicial punishment, it is more likely (than it would be in a civilian proceeding) than not, that the accused is actually innocent – not merely not guilty. Under the Law of Armed Conflict (and International Law), illegal combatants (like ISIS) are not afforded any of the protections of regular military forces or non-combatant civilians. That may be offensive to some, but that is the law.

    What is offensive is that the panel convicted Chief Gallagher of the “lesser charge.” That’s not an unheard of tactic – give the panel (or jury) and opportunity to hold the accused “accountable” for something. Hopefully, the Convening Authority will nix that.

    Advocaat (33a09d) — 7/3/2019 @ 2:14 pm

  10. “Given the way in which a Courts Martial is conducted, and the availability of non-judicial punishment, it is more likely (than it would be in a civilian proceeding) than not, that the accused is actually innocent – not merely not guilty.”

    Normally I would agree with you, but this particular trial was a circus.

    Davethulhu (fab944) — 7/3/2019 @ 2:18 pm

  11. At first glance, the defendant seems to have won his acquittal by strategically timed perjury by another member of his team.(at a point when it wouldn’t hurt him to claim responsibility)

    It doesn’t even sound like his testimony made sense.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 7/3/2019 @ 2:34 pm


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