Blackwater Murder Trial Update

[cclaxton]

http://www.wtop.com/109/3670962/Defense-Govt-suppressed-evidence-in-Blackwater

[Tamara]

Buried exculpatory evidence? I'm having Rules of Engagement flashbacks...

[Alpha Sierra]

U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen says that "a series of innocent oversights" led to the problem.

http://austerityisgenocide.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gomer_pyle.jpg?w=630

[cclaxton]

It's a common prosecutors tactic...happens in a lot of trials.
The penalty is less than a hand-slap...so they do it all the time.
The penalty needs to be much higher...prosecutors get away with....well...you know.
Cody

[Jeep]

It's a common prosecutors tactic...happens in a lot of trials.
The penalty is less than a hand-slap...so they do it all the time.
The penalty needs to be much higher...prosecutors get away with....well...you know.
Cody

You are right about that. Sometimes, of course, it is just sloppiness, but you have to wonder about other times, and this is one of them. There is bound to be a lot of political pressure on the prosecutors to get a conviction in this case. I don't know enough to have a firm conclusion about what happened, but it is pretty clear that the State Department insisted on very intrusive and aggressive tactics to protect its employees, and thus State at least has an incentive to point at the Blackwater employees rather than the operating procedures it formulated or the chaos of a war that it has largely repudiated.

At times like these, you have to hope the prosecutors are able to put their obligation to pursue justice over their natural desire to win a case, and that might not have happened here.