Several outlets report that a CA has preferred premdiatated murder charges against a Ft. Campbell soldier in the death of his wife and mother-in-law. See AP via WaPohere and

8 Responses to “Ft. Campbell Soldier May Face Fifth Murder Trial at Court-Martial”

1. Dew_Process says:

   July 11, 2011 at 5:08 am

   Fodder for Hennis’s pending appeal – just how many bites of the apple before someone say’s “enough?” If he does a habe, that’s under 6th Circuit precedent versus the 4th in Hennis. If the State of Kentucky couldn’t convict him after 4 tries, something’s really screwy about this case.
2. Cheap Seats says:

   July 11, 2011 at 8:15 am

   Did the Army not process him for administrative separation? Why leave him on the books? We’d have adsepped him long ago…
3. k fischer says:

   July 11, 2011 at 9:48 am

   Cheap Seats,

   I was second chair on a case at Ft. Benning, US v. Tillery, where previously a NC judge took it out of the juries hands and dismissed the case on a motion for directed verdict. The murder occurred in NC. We tried him at court martial when he returned to Benning, and now he’s at Leavenworth for life with parole. He was offered an adsep while awaiting his civilian trial, but he demanded a board, so we waited. He made a bad choice.

   Burke is an E-5, so he might have more than 6 years in, and perhaps is demanding a board, as well. Could be another bad choice if he did.
4. Cheap Seats says:

   July 11, 2011 at 4:35 pm

   Can the Army not do a board “In Absentia” as long as the Respondent’s Counsel is there? That’s what we’d do in the Navy.
5. k fischer says:

   July 11, 2011 at 5:40 pm

   CS,

   You are correct! AR 635-200, paragraph 2-14e allows for it. I don’t know why the previous TC did not do a separation in absentia. I guess they were waiting for a conviction, so they could separate him under AR 635-200, paragraph 14-5. Of course, once you wait and the accused is acquitted or there are 4 mistrials, then you almost have to go with a court martial, to keep the irrelevant evidence that he was acquitted or that there was a previous trial resulting in no conviction away from the fact finder. I think a separation board would be like the wild west and they could vote that no misconduct occurred.

   Blerpp….I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit after realizing that I just sounded like an instrument of the Man…

   ksf
6. stewie says:

   July 11, 2011 at 10:53 pm

   I’d have to know more, why were there mistrials? Hung juries? I can certainly imagine a civilian prosecution being uber-screwed up.

   I don’t think it’s automatically the case that this guy is somehow being persecuted, although it’s certainly possible he could be.
7. k fischer says:

   July 12, 2011 at 2:34 pm

   Mistrials? Late discovery on a SODDI witness/Witness became ill.
   http://www.fox41.com/story/11865218/second-mistrial-in-brent-burke-case?redirected=true

   Hung Juries (Also, technically mistrial)? 6-6 split, 8-4 in favor of convicting. This is based on the first comment on this news story.

   http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Hardin-Co-judge-dismisses-charges-against-former-Fort-Campbell-soldier-Brent-Burke.html

   Interestingly, the story above states that the PAO spokesperson indicated that SGT Burke would be outprocessed as an AWOL Soldier, but might be entitled to back pay. I wonder if he was given the option to be outprocessed, but he demanded a board and they said, “Okay, we’ll prosecute you at court-martial, instead.”
8. k fischer says:

   July 12, 2011 at 3:15 pm

   Stewie,

   Here is the Order from the judge dismissing the case after the victim filed some sort of objection. It tells the voting of the two hung juries and outlines pretty succinctly the reasons why the DA wanted to dismiss the case instead of taking it to a fifth trial:

   http://images.bimedia.net/documents/Burke+document.pdf

   Apparently, some juvenile confessed to the crime in addition to throwing some bloody clothes in a lake AND there is evidence that shots were fired on the night of the murder when the accused could not have been there.

   These two issues sound pretty big. Of course, I don’t know if it would be enough to get over the presumption of guilty at a court martial.

   If I were Burke, then I might pay a civilian $300 to take an exculpatory polygraph before the Article 32.