Marine wants credit for time in brig

[Judi Lynn]

Feb. 14, 2007, 9:29PM
Marine wants credit for time in brig

By THOMAS WATKINS Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine who pleaded guilty to kidnapping in connection with the death of an Iraqi civilian deserves special credit for time already spent in the brig, his attorneys argued Wednesday.

Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, along with the rest of his squad, has been in the brig since he was pulled from the Iraqi combat theater last May. The eight-man team was accused of kidnapping and murdering a man in the town of Hamdania, near Abu Ghraib.

Pennington's military lawyers argued that some of his legal rights had been violated, and that he should be awarded extra credit for time served early on in his confinement.

Attorney David Brahms said that Pennington was not given a preliminary hearing quickly enough, and that the Marine's conditions of confinement were unnecessarily harsh. The squad was initially classified as potentially violent and were kept in shackles.
(snip)

The squad was accused of dragging Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home and shooting him. Investigators believe the servicemen tried to cover up the killing by planting an AK-47 and a shovel by Awad's body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4554957.html

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Other articles have indicated the murder victem was also handicapped.

[Kiouni]

1. does the military have different

standards then civilian courts on time served? Because usually if you held without bail and convicted that time counts toward your sentence right?

[happyslug]

2. And if you are found Innocent, the time in Jail and at Trial does NOT count to your Discharge Date.

Thus if you have a four year enlistment contract and held for a year for a Court Martial and found Not Guilty, that year goes NOT go to your four year commitment.