NY Soldier Acquitted of Murder in Officers' Deaths

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

A soldier was acquitted of murder Thursday in the 2005 bombing deaths of two superiors in Iraq, triggering loud outbursts and gasps from the slain officers' families.

A military jury found Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez not guilty on two counts of premedidated murder in the deaths of Capt. Phillip Esposito of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis Allen, of Milford, Pa. Both officers were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in a window of their room at a U.S. military base in Iraq in June 2005.

"He slaughtered our husbands and that's it?" yelled Allen's widow, Barbara Allen, moments after the verdict was read. Someone else shouted out that Martinez was a "murdering son of a bitch" before the judge quickly ordered the courtroom to be cleared.

The 14-member jury spent two days deliberating following a six-week trial at Fort Bragg, during which Martinez chose not to testify. The New York Army National Guard soldier could have faced the death penalty if he had been convicted.

Martinez, 41, of Troy, N.Y., was the first soldier from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to have been accused of killing a direct superior, a crime known as "fragging" during the Vietnam war. All three were members of the 42nd Infantry Division.





Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=6396305

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. WOW! Now the military is impressing me

they usually throw the book and then some...

Something about good order and discipline

Oh and the evidence be damned

[Blue_Tires]

2. strange...

not sure what that jury was thinking....

[AndyTiedye]

4. Perhaps They Thought He Didn't Do It

[MikeNearMcChord]

5. Don't forget most juries in the military are

officers, if not High ranking NCO's. Besides the families should blame the prosecution, it is their job to prove that Sgt Martinez killed the two men and they didn't do it.

[bananas]

8. "It's not clear who actually did it, that's the bottom line," commented one of Allen's aunts

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081205/NEWS/812050373

<snip>

Much of the case against the defendant turned out to be circumstantial, leaving room for doubt about the thoroughness of the forensic investigation into the murders. "It's not clear who actually did it, that's the bottom line," commented one of Allen's aunts, Kathleen Kraus, just before watching the verdict read through a video feed from Fort Bragg, N.C., where the trial was held.

[Historic NY]

3. Much pain here in the Hudson Valley over these deaths........

I am amazed.

[NaturalHigh]

6. I don't know enough about this case to judge one way or the other.

I do know, however, that it's very difficult to win an acquittal in a military court martial when the prosecution has proceeded past the Article 32 hearing. Either this guy had a great defense lawyer, or the prosecution had a pretty weak case to begin with.

[oldnslo]

7. He better get out of the Army ASAP, or will be a target.