1dayatatime
05-14-2005, 08:47 AM
Marine Shouldn't Face Murder Charges, Investigator Says
POSTED: 9:13 am EDT May 14, 2005
UPDATED: 9:33 am EDT May 14, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Murder charges against a Marine Corps lieutenant who fatally shot two Iraqis during a search for a terrorist hideout should be dropped because key witnesses and evidence failed to back up the accusation, an investigating officer has recommended.
Lt. Col. Mark Winn made his recommendation in the case of 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano, 33, in an opinion made public Friday.
Pantano, however, did make "serious errors in tactical judgment," Winn wrote, and still should face nonjudicial punishment for one charge -- that he desecrated the bodies by reloading his weapon and repeatedly shooting them.
The report, dated Thursday, was posted on a Web site maintained by Pantano's mother. A Camp Lejeune spokesman confirmed that Winn had completed his work but declined to comment further.
Pantano is stationed at the Marine base, where his Article 32 hearing concluded April 30.
Winn "found that Lt. Pantano's actions were justified and not unlawful," his civilian lawyer Charles Gittins said Friday. "Anytime the Article 32 works to the benefit of the accused, it's a good thing."
The attorney said Pantano, a former Wall Street trader who rejoined the Marines after the Sept. 11 attacks, is not speaking publicly until the case is resolved.
Military authorities may choose to accept Winn's recommendation, give some form of administrative punishment or go ahead with a court-martial.
In his opinion, Winn said the accusation that Pantano shot the detainees last year while they were kneeling with their backs to him was not supported by testimony or evidence.
The investigating officer "must have realized that the prosecution had no case. Their case just fell apart," Pantano's mother, Merry Pantano of New York, said Friday.
Referring to Winn's recommendation that her son still face the desecration charge, Merry Pantano said it appeared her son was being "reprimanded for so zealously killing the enemy."
Prosecutors allege Pantano killed the suspected insurgents in April 2004 because he believed they were launching mortars at his troops. Pantano never denied shooting the men but said he acted in self-defense after the men disobeyed his instructions and made a menacing move toward him.
Pantano, according to prosecutors, intended to make an example of the detainees by shooting them 60 times and hanging a sign over their bodies -- "No better friend, no worse enemy," a Marine slogan.
"We must never allow ourselves to vacate the moral high ground under the guise of 'sending a message to these Iraqis and others' in order to intimidate," Winn wrote. "As officers in the United States Military, it is our sacred obligation to teach our junior men what is moral and just in war, and what is not."
POSTED: 9:13 am EDT May 14, 2005
UPDATED: 9:33 am EDT May 14, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Murder charges against a Marine Corps lieutenant who fatally shot two Iraqis during a search for a terrorist hideout should be dropped because key witnesses and evidence failed to back up the accusation, an investigating officer has recommended.
Lt. Col. Mark Winn made his recommendation in the case of 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano, 33, in an opinion made public Friday.
Pantano, however, did make "serious errors in tactical judgment," Winn wrote, and still should face nonjudicial punishment for one charge -- that he desecrated the bodies by reloading his weapon and repeatedly shooting them.
The report, dated Thursday, was posted on a Web site maintained by Pantano's mother. A Camp Lejeune spokesman confirmed that Winn had completed his work but declined to comment further.
Pantano is stationed at the Marine base, where his Article 32 hearing concluded April 30.
Winn "found that Lt. Pantano's actions were justified and not unlawful," his civilian lawyer Charles Gittins said Friday. "Anytime the Article 32 works to the benefit of the accused, it's a good thing."
The attorney said Pantano, a former Wall Street trader who rejoined the Marines after the Sept. 11 attacks, is not speaking publicly until the case is resolved.
Military authorities may choose to accept Winn's recommendation, give some form of administrative punishment or go ahead with a court-martial.
In his opinion, Winn said the accusation that Pantano shot the detainees last year while they were kneeling with their backs to him was not supported by testimony or evidence.
The investigating officer "must have realized that the prosecution had no case. Their case just fell apart," Pantano's mother, Merry Pantano of New York, said Friday.
Referring to Winn's recommendation that her son still face the desecration charge, Merry Pantano said it appeared her son was being "reprimanded for so zealously killing the enemy."
Prosecutors allege Pantano killed the suspected insurgents in April 2004 because he believed they were launching mortars at his troops. Pantano never denied shooting the men but said he acted in self-defense after the men disobeyed his instructions and made a menacing move toward him.
Pantano, according to prosecutors, intended to make an example of the detainees by shooting them 60 times and hanging a sign over their bodies -- "No better friend, no worse enemy," a Marine slogan.
"We must never allow ourselves to vacate the moral high ground under the guise of 'sending a message to these Iraqis and others' in order to intimidate," Winn wrote. "As officers in the United States Military, it is our sacred obligation to teach our junior men what is moral and just in war, and what is not."