Hashim Ibrahim Awad
July 13, 2007
Two things in this post, has the autopsy ever been made public, will it be examined in the trial of any of the Marines? It has been reported that AWAD was flown to Dover Air Force Base for the autopsy. Secondly, was AWAD the Iraqi killed that night? Read below, and one final question has any physical evidence ever been presented in any of the ARTICLE 32 hearings or will physical evidence be presented by the prosecution in the THOMAS trial? Thank You to Tim Harrington for finding this article.
UNION-TRIBUNE
July 12, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON: In a technical decision that could come into play later, the military judge in the Hamdaniya trial ruled yesterday that the government hasn’t established the identity of the Iraqi man that Marines are accused of murdering.
Lt. Col. David M. Jones ruled that prosecutors can refer to the man 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment members are accused of killing as Hashim Ibrahim Awad.
But Jones said Marine prosecutors have not proved to his satisfaction that the man who Marines shot to death April 26, 2006, in Hamdaniya was indeed Awad.
This decision could come into play during sentencing if there is a guilty verdict. In that scenario, the prosecution could not use statements from Awad’s family to get a stiffer sentence.
Typically, prosecutors attempt to show the jury how a death has affected a victim’s family in angling for a tough sentence.
The death of Awad, 52, allegedly left 11 children without a father and a wife without a husband. Unless prosecutors can prove that the man killed by Marines was Awad, that information will never reach the military jury. –R.R.
