The announcement states that Anonymous stole 2.6 gigabytes of e-mail belonging to Puckett Faraj, a law firm that represents Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who is accused of leading the group of Marines in Haditha. The Web site of Puckett Faraj is not currently loading, and Gawker is reporting that the site was hacked.

A spokeswoman for Puckett Faraj confirmed that the Web site was down but said that she could not confirm or deny whether the site had been hacked.

Gawker reports that:

In announcing the hack, Anonymous stressed that it was attempting to expose and combat the failures of the military justice system, which let a murderer off the hook. Included in the release are “detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records pertaining to not only Frank Wuterich but also many other marines they have represented.”

Well, yes. But a very cursory examination—we’ve only been able to peruse a tiny percentage of the data released—has turned up a wealth of information about, for instance, sexual assault victims. Puckett and Faraj, the targeted law firm, represented a Marine accused of rape in 2007. So among partner Haytham Faraj’s emails are witness statements from the victims . . . .

AP reports, here, that LCpl Jacoby Jacob was sentenced in Hawaii yesterday to reduction, loss of pay, and 30 days in the brig in the hazing related assault of a fellow Marine. That Marine LCpl Henry Lee killed himself after the incident. Our prior coverage of the hazing allegations can be found here.

An Air Force Art. 32 hearing is deciding the fate of a cadet charged with rape on USAFA gorunds.  The Colorado Springs Gazette reports, here:

Thomas, Colangelo, Claxton and several other cadets were drinking and partying in Colorado Springs when Thomas said he noticed a woman, a former cadet, was extremely drunk.

None of the cadets knew where she lived, so they brought her back to the dorms, Thomas said. After placing her on a bed, Thomas said he and other cadets left the room.

A few minutes later, Colangelo said he asked Thomas why the door was locked.

Colangelo testified to Lt. Col. Rhonda Bershok — who presided over the hearing — that he and Cadet David Burns banged on the door.

Colangelo said when Claxton opened the door, he and his friends found the woman with her pants unzipped and her shirt pulled up.

Moments later, Claxton punched Burns in the face, yelling “I’m not a rapist. I’m not a rapist,” Thomas said.

The cadets reported the incident to their superiors that night.

The SGT Brent Burke court-martial in the killing of his wife and mother-in-law is scheduled to start next month.  Coverage here from the Bowling Green Daily News.  Our prior coverage of the facts and two prior civilian trials is here and here.

After hearing evidence with neither President Barack Obama nor his lawyers in attendance, a state administrative law judge on Thursday did not issue a ruling as to whether Obama can be allowed on the state ballot in November.

Lawyers for area residents mounting “birther” challenges told Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi that Obama should be found in contempt of court for not appearing when under subpoena to do so. But Malihi did not indicate he would recommend that and cut off one lawyer when he criticized Obama for not attending the hearing.

“It shows not just a contempt for this court, but contempt for the judicial branch,” lawyer Van Irion told Malihi.

And now, to wrap things up, the “Orly Taitz Delusional Quote of the Day” courtesy of the Orange County Weekly, here, “ Does this look like a behavior of an innocent person? An innocent person would have come to court and showed all the valid documents with the embossed seals, which are verifiable. Instead he is acting like a 5-year-old brat, saying ‘I am afraid of Orly, ‘I want the secretary of state of GA to act like my mommy and protect me from Orly.’ Some leader of a free world . . .”   Let’s see, SEAL Team 6 or GA SOS, I think the CINC’s picked the right protectors of the free world.  There is no such thing as too much birthers.

A Georgia judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta Thursday for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen and can’t be president.

Orly Taitz, the California attorney who brought the legal challenge to Obama’s name on the March Georgia presidential primary ballot, says this is what she has been working for over the last three years.

“This will be 100 times bigger than Watergate,” she said Saturday morning, referring to the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974.

“There are high ranking judges and federal officials who are involved in this cover up. The ramifications of this trial will be enormous.”

. . . .

A Georgia resident made the complaint, which is intended to keep Obama’s name off the state’s ballot in the March presidential primary.

And much hilarity ensued.  UPI (here) and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (here), by the way, say  that the President’s camp informed them that the CINC is unlikely to appear on Thursday.

A U.S. military judge sentenced a Marine squad leader charged with alleged war crimes in Iraq to a maximum of 90 days in prison and a reduction in pay and rank.

But because of a plea deal with prosecutors, Staff Sgt. Frank G. Wuterich won’t serve any time in the brig. The military judge was obligated to abide by the plea arrangement between prosecutors and the defense.

In the end, Wuterich’s sentence amounts to a reduction in rank — to private — and a pay cut.

So ends the Haditha cases . . . or at least until a creative Appellate Defense counsel gets a hold of the plea record in the next decade or so.   I would imagine the next step is some sort of mandatory high year tenure separation proceeding stripping SSgt (Pvt) Wuterich of benefits.

UPDATED:  A couple of additional reactions from the US’s rule of law protege countries, here.

H/t GGH

U.S. v. Miranda . . . we note that the convening authority approved the sentence, which included a bad-conduct discharge, and then stated, “In accordance with the UCMJ, Rules for Courts-Martial, applicable regulations, and this action, the sentence is ordered executed.” Under Article 71(c)(1), UCMJ, a punitive discharge cannot be ordered executed until, after the completion of direct appellate review, there is a final judgment as to the legality of the proceedings. Thus, to the extent that the convening authority’s action purported to execute the bad-conduct discharge, it was a nullity. To avoid any error in this regard, we again suggest that the model “Forms for Action” in Manual for Courts-Martial, United States app. 16 at A16-1 – A16-6 (2008 ed.) be revised. See United States v. Politte, 63 M.J. 24, 26 n.11 (C.A.A.F. 2006).

We’ve discussed this before here.  CAAF can’t let go of this.  Maybe the Code Committee has a little work?

Full disclosure, I am an amici (or at least we’ve moved to be amici) in the case as part of the long-windedly titled, “Brief of Amici Curiae John F. O’Connor, Michael J. Navarre, Air Force Appellate Defense Division, and Navy-Marine Corps Appellate Defense Division.”  Our brief, which borrows from the lead amici’s law review article on the same topic, is available here.  

Amici make among other arguments the intial argument that the exercise of court-martial jurisdiction over Mr. Ali is unconstitutional because court-martial jurisdiciton is not the least possible power needed to maintain good order and discipline among active duty troops.  And the amici brief offers CAAF an alternative to finding Art. 2(a)(10), UCMJ unconstitutional by finding that Mr. Ali was not serving “in the field” at the time of his court-martial, as required by  a narrow reading Article 2(a)(10) because the historical understanding of “in the field” is limited to circumstances where it is logistically impractical to turn a civilian over to civilian authorities.

The Forces Law Gazette (FLG) is a newsletter out of India related to law in the uniformed service. The FLG will be published quarterly by Major Navdeep Singh, Advocate, Punjab & Haryana High Court. The Gazette is available for free download on its website. The Gazette will consist of three parts; (1) law related to uniformed services, (2) developments and miscellaneous, and (3) contributions and articles.

Issue 1 (Dec. 2011) tackled issues of pension and benefits, promotion, discipline & court martial, and others. The issue also includes contributions from Michelle Lindo McCluer, a former US Air Force judge advocate and former Executive Director of National Institute of Military Justice, Capt. Sandeep Bansal (a current judge advocate in India) and two retired judge advocates, Col MS Jawal (Retd.) Advocate and Gen. Raj Mechta (Retd.).

The Asian Pacific Centre for Military Law (APCML), is a collaboration between the Australian Defense Legal Division and the Melbourne University Law School. APMCL aims to increase the understanding of the Rule of Law in all aspects of military affairs both within the Australian Defense Force and among the militaries in the Asia Pacific Region. The website is updated through its news section.

Although not exclusively focused on military law the United Kingdom’s Law Society Gazette occasionally publishes military justice stories. It is published weekly and is the highest circulated legal journal in the United Kingdom. The Law Society of England and Wales publish the Law Society Gazette.

We will stay on the lookout for others and welcome tips from commenters. These resources will be collected on an International Military Justice Resources page linked in the right sidebar that we’ll update as new resources come to our attention.

Many thanks to NIMJ law student intern Henry Castillo from UC Hastings for researching and co-authoring this post.

[H]e saw a group of Iraqi men standing in front of a white car parked on the road. A couple had their hands up in the air or locked behind their heads . . . Then one dropped to the ground.

Wuterich had taken a knee and was pointing his gun at the men, Dela Cruz said. He assumed his squad leader had seen something threatening and was shooting, so Dela Cruz opened fire.

Wuterich . . . has said the Iraqi men started to run and he thought they might have triggered the bomb.

. . . .

Dela Cruz’s credibility as a witness was impaired by his admission that he lied in his initial sworn statements to naval investigators in Iraq. According to him, he conspired with Wuterich to cover up what happened.

“Sgt. Wuterich approached me and told me if anyone asked that they were running away and the Iraqi Army shot them — those five individuals near the white car,” Dela Cruz said. (Wuterich and his lawyers deny that and say he has always been truthful.)

More later today.

Better coverage of Tatum’s testimony here, courtesy of the North County Times.

Well it shouldn’t have taken much to figure what our #1 story for 2011 would be if you were playing along at home.  Our two top post topics during the year were (1) the elements test and (2) the UCMJ definition of sex crimes. Really now, did you think this would come out any other way?

But the lowest common denominator was not the organizing principle that got the military justice system into the mess that became United States v. Prather and the new, new Art 120, UCMJ.  Rather, much like the judges at CAAF, none of us has been able to figure out the organizing principle of the new Art 120. Thus we spent the better part of 2010 and 2011 unraveling that statute which I can best describe as resembling my Christmas lights when they first come out of storage each year–a tangled mess with no hope for untangling so I just go buy new ones each year.

And, in fact, Congress obliged at the end of 2011 and did buy us the new, new Art 120, UCMJ.   And thank Congress we must, because these developments have led to enlightened discussions of such wonderful topics as bestiality, digital penetration of the anus, and other crowd favorites.  Votes for any other top story would be like first place votes in the next BCS poll for LSU. But we’ll probably see some of those much like we heard the Fosler crowd thumping the Chief Judge Baker sea change drum (or is it the “sky is falling” drum?) for the one accused that received Fosler relief this year.

I could spend hours on sex, crimes, and the UCMJ, but I must agree that it is time to get back to more enlightened discussions of worthwhile topics like how a civilian can be “in the field” while listening to Iron Maiden at Camp Victory before attempting to take the daily stateside flight home?

Prosecutors painted a picture of a Marine who lost control and said they will present “[t]estimony . . . that Wuterich stood at the foot of a bed where a woman and child were cowering in fear and shot them in the head.” Defense attorneys say their client operated within the ROE and will be exonerated, putting “Haditha behind us.”  I am not sure the Iraqis or the victims families can just put the incident behind them, but the quote may be out of context.

A 2009 Top Story, here,  highlighted the problems leading up to the trial of  four Navy SEALs for alleged mistreatment of a detainee in US custody.  The case resulted in four acquittals, that some , though not me, argued were further evidence of military justice failures in combat envrions.  The 2009 Top 10, in fact, featured several combat environment courts.  While another 2009 Top 10 story, here, about the PFC Steven Green’s MEJA trial for killings in Mahmoudiya, Iraq ended in success, we questioned the three-year delay in the trial and the relative effect on good order and discipline.  Adding to the 2009 total were the Chessani debacle and the ultimately successful prosecution of 1LT Michael Behenna, here.  2008′s crop featuring some ntable problems in the cobat environment, can be found here (#8 -  SSgt Alberto Martinez’s acquittal), here (#2 – first civilian court, Ali), and here (#1 – Haditha aftermath).

This year’s combat environment Top 10 story is very different because it features of series of what I can only judge from the outside as a series of successful courts-martial convicting several members of the 5th Stryker Brigade for alleged thrill killings in Afghanistan.  See coverage of various plea deals here, here, and here (among others).  Ultimately the government convicted and won a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for the alleged ringleader of the death squad SSGT Clavin Gibbs, coverage here.  The trial was from all accounts I found, relatively well-conceived and avoided many of the pitfalls we’ve highlighted before.  The prime difference in this series of cases seems to be contemporaneous confessions and statements from multiple US servicemembers that corroborated the core story of a not particularly great key government witness, coverage here.  But, this case like most other combat environment courts was plagued by a lack of physical evidence, though the 5th Stryker Brigade’s members accused in these cases (like their predecessors at Abu Ghraib) punched their own tickets in some cases by keeping grisly photos or even body parts of their victims, see here.  Anyone compared these cases to MAJ Rosenblatt’s recommendations, they must have done something right?

As much as I liked to write more, the show must go on.  And then there were two . . . .