User:Geo Swan/Randy W. Stone

Randy W. Stone is a lawyer and Judge Advocate for the United States Marine Corp. In 2007 an Naval Criminal Investigative Service inquiry into the Haditha incident recommended charges against Stone and three other officers for failing to properly investigate an incident where a squad of Marines shot and killed two dozen nearby unarmed civilians after one of their comrades was killed by a roadside bomb.

Stone was the legal affairs officer of the killer's Battalion. The killer's officers failed to investigate the killings for 13 months until Time magazine independently reported on the incident. NCIS then took over investigating the killings, and recommended charges against four shooters, Stone, and three other officers, Captain Lucas M. McConnell, the shooter's company commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey R. Chessani, the killer's Battalion commander, and Lieutenant Andrew A. Grayson one of the Battalion's intelligence officers.

Under US military law a senior officer, in a GI's direct line of command, known as the "convening authority" has the command perogative to make the final decision whether a GI should face a court martial. They can decide to ignore recommendations that charges be laid, and they are not obliged to explain why. Controversial Lieutenant General James Mattis, the commander of all Marines in Iraq was the convenial authority for Stone.

Mattis delegated Major Thomas McCann to hold an Article 32 hearing. Article 32 hearings are reviews by a junior officer authorized to look into accusations and make recommendations as to whether there is substance to them. They kind of recommendation they are authorized to make include: no further action; administrative punishment, like a formal letter of admonishment; or formal charges and a court martial.

At his article 32 hearing Charles Gittins asserted more senior officers were being protected by making a scapegoat of Stone :

Gittins argued that since, in a war zone, the collateral deaths of civilians are routine, Stone had no reason not to believe the killing of these 24 unarmed civilians followed the rules of engagement.

The report of the article 32 hearing was published on June 19, 2007.

Stone's hearing did not recommend proceeding to a court martial, but did recommend "administrative punishment" -- a black mark in Stone's official record. Mattis chose to follow his subordinate's recommendation not to proceed to court martial, and chose to ignore the recommendation to admonish Stone. Mattis did issue a statement explaining his decision, in which he blamed the killings on

On January 30, 2012, Jonathon F. Keller, writing in The American Thinker, praised Stone, and criticized his critics. Keller defended the decisions of Stone and his fellow officers to not conduct an inquiry into the civilian deaths. Keller described subsequent events as a "legal fiasco", which he blamed on more senior officers in the Marine corp, who should have ignored public criticism. Keller based his conclusion on the final conclusion of Sergeant Frank Wuterich's trial. Wuterich, the senior Marine present during the killings, was convicted merely of "dereliction of duty", for which he was sentenced to no jail time, only a reduction in rank.