CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) — A military jury has recommended that a U.S. Marine twice convicted of murdering an Iraqi civilian get no additional prison time.
The jury returned its decision in the case of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III of Plymouth on Thursday after a retrial at Camp Pendleton, California. The trial’s convening authority, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., can accept, reject or modify the recommendation during the coming weeks.
Hutchins was convicted Wednesday of unpremeditated murder in the 2006 killing in Hamdania, Iraq. Prosecutors said Hutchins’ squad planted an AK-47 and a shovel by the body to make it appear the victim was an insurgent planting an explosive.
Hutchins served about seven years of an 11-year sentence after his first conviction in 2007, but courts threw out that conviction because of errors.
