Lawyers: Army can’t try Hennis case

[unhappycamper]

Lawyers: Army can’t try Hennis case
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 4, 2008 22:14:12 EST

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Lawyers for the man accused in a 1985 triple murder in Fayetteville argued that the military does not have jurisdiction for a planned court-martial.

In a motions hearing Monday at Fort Bragg, lawyers for Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis said the military lost jurisdiction in the case because Hennis had a “break in service” after the murders.

Hennis was in the Army in May 1985, when Kathryn Eastburn and two of three daughters, 5-year-old Kara and 3-year-old Erin, were killed. He was convicted and sentenced to death, then acquitted in a retrial in 1989.

His attorneys said Monday that while his case was making its way through the state courts, his term of enlistment ended. He re-enlisted after he was acquitted.

Prosecutors argued that a discharge simply to enable a re-enlistment does not constitute a break in service.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_hennis_080204/



uhc comment: Previous threads on Hennis -->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=10133
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=10138