Conviction overturned in Iraqi soldier's death
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine reservist's conviction in the death of an Iraqi soldier was overturned by a military appeals court, which ruled the judge who presided over the trial erred in his jury instructions.
The three-judge panel ruled last week in Washington that Delano Holmes' negligent homicide conviction should be overturned because judge Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks did not instruct jurors that the charge could legitimately be countered with a claim of self-defense.
The appeals panel instructed the Camp Pendleton court that originally tried Holmes to retry him or dismiss the charge.
The Marine jury convicted Holmes, 24, in December 2007 of negligent homicide and of making a false official statement in the stabbing death a year earlier of Pvt. Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin in Fallujah.
Jurors acquitted him of unpremeditated homicide, which carried a potential life sentence.
AP | Posted 10.14.2009 | Home