Marine Seeks Dismissal of Haditha Case

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Lawyers for a Marine staff sergeant whose squad killed 24 Iraqis said Thursday they are preparing a motion that will seek to have the case dismissed because the Marine Corps retired his military attorney.

Attorney Haytham Faraj, a civilian lawyer representing Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, told a military judge that the Camp Pendleton Marine's defense has been compromised because the retirement violated attorney-client relationship rights.

Another civilian defense attorney, Neal Puckett, told The Associated Press after Thursday's hearing that their aim is to have the case thrown out.

Puckett said the Marine Corps retired Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey in 2008 despite the objections of Vokey, who wanted to stay on the case as his detailed military counsel until after the trial.

Defense lawyers are calling their filing the "Hutchins Motion" after Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, whose murder conviction was thrown out this spring by a military appeals court that ruled he was given an unfair trial because his military defense attorney was relinquished before his 2007 court-martial.

Wuterich's lawyers told military judge Lt. Col. David M. Jones on Thursday that they will send the motion to him immediately. Prosecutors declined to comment after the motion hearing.

Wuterich, 30, of Meriden, Conn., faces reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter. He is accused of leading his men on a rampage that killed two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005 after a roadside bomb killed a Marine.

Eight Marines were initially charged with murder or failing to investigate the killings. Six have had charges dismissed, and one was acquitted.

Wuterich has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. He is the last defendant in the case, considered to be the biggest to emerge out of the Iraq war. The trial is scheduled to start Sept. 13.