If I remember the case rightly, it was the banter during the incident, recorded on the helmet cam, that secured the conviction. 'Gallows humour' is a coping mechanism for people who are placed in horrific situations, it normally occurs when there are teams or groups of people and they bounce off each other in a type of 'hot debrief'. This young man, on previous tours of duty, had witnessed colleagues captured, killed, mutilated and hung from trees with their private parts stuffed in their mouths. On this occasion the target (victim) may have been armed or concealing an explosive or incendiary device and ready to not only take his own life but the lives of the soldiers Marine A was responsible for. The helmet cam recordings were damning, but that's only one part of the evidence, the evidence as a whole could have led to a very different verdict. I understand the stress and pressures that young people go through in situations like this and whilst I would never advocate murder in the field, it is different from a 'normal' incident and consideration must be given to how people respond when theirs and colleagues lives are at risk. I suspect this was a 'politically correct' conviction because of the sensationalism of the helmet cam evidence, but I think the conviction is disgraceful that's why I support the petition, it's interesting to note that most high ranks interviewed during and after the trial supported Marine A and stated the conviction was wrong.
I'm not particularly hung-up on the 'was he guilty or not' of murdering the Taliban soldier, my concern is that he was exposed and named by the judicial system, when really he should have remained anonymous for his family's sake. His family's safety has been compromised now, this isn't a crime that they should be punished for. Nobody is prepared to state why they think the family should have to bare the burden of this permanently, the people who decided the way to unfold this through the media have got this all wrong.
Is this the same one who was in the news 6-9 months ago? Said something along the lines of breaking the Geneva convention? If so, I believe he was in the wrong and shouldn't have killed the guy. However, I have signed the petition as I think getting kicked out of the forces would have been a more than adequate punishment, prison for murder or whatever he went down for is ridiculous. The lads in the army do a tremendous job and the scum who will skin them alive if they catch them, shouldn't be given the same human rights as say a man on the street in London. Yes the chap's made a mistake but prison, ffs.
I think there's a lot more grey area with this than just convicting the guy off the back of some head cam footage, I don't like the way they went about the prosecution at all. Having said that, if he broke the law, he's guilty and should be punished, BUT his family shouldn't be punished and the judicial system that punished him, punished his family as well. This is outside the remit of the judicial process, in my opinion and has to be fixed. If his kids get kidnapped for example, all the **** is going to hit the fan.
