In the perpetual debate over legal accountability of, and prosecution if necessary, of private military and security contractors one often sees the arguments reduced to two simplistic arguments. PMSC opponents argue the contractors argue in a legal vacuum and with utter impunity. This is, of course, as anyone who has even done the most cursory reading on the subject knows, is utter nonsense. . . . Well then, in that case let’s take a look at a journal article published this past spring. In an article “Cowboys in the Middle East: Private Security Companies and the Imperfect Reach of the United States Criminal Justice System” in the quarterly journal Connections Christopher M. Kovach, who serves as a Captain in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, notes the limitations of the revised MEJA.

Marine Corps Times reports:

A baritone horn player assigned to Marine Barracks Washington is the subject of an Article 32 investigation in connection with online photos and videos that allegedly show him having sex with other men.

WRAL.com reports:

An 82nd Airborne Division soldier charged in a sexual assault on Fort Bragg last December asked a military judge on Monday to move his trial. Army Spc. Aaron Michael Pernell, 23, is charged with two counts each of rape and burglary and one count each of attempted rape, assault consummated by battery and housebreaking. His court-martial is scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 27. Pernell’s military lawyers asked that the trial be moved because of Fayetteville’s relatively close-knit community and the intense media coverage surrounding sex assaults in the area.

Navy Times reports:

The commanding officer of the amphibious assault ship Peleliu was relieved of command Sunday even as his ship helped with the humanitarian mission in flood-stricken Pakistan, after an investigation found he had been “unduly familiar” with crew members, the Navy announced. The relief will not stop Peleliu’s contributions to the flood relief efforts, a spokesman said.

Marine Corps Times reports:

The supervisor of a former Camp Lejeune Marine accused of killing his pregnant colleague testified Friday that ex-Marine Cesar Laurean was one of the best troops of his rank he has ever led. . . . Larsen said he did not know Lauterbach well. But her reputation in the unit was “that she’s not truthful all the time,” Larsen said.

This case got quite a bit of noteriety when it happened.

Laurean [the accused] was kicked out of the Marines after fleeing hours before investigators found Lauterbach’s body on Jan. 12, 2008. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Laurean was arrested in western Mexico in April 2008 after an international manhunt. Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty so Mexico would return Laurean to the U.S. Lauterbach accused Laurean in May 2007 of raping her and fathering her unborn baby. She later told a military prosecutor that Laurean couldn’t be the father based on a medical examination and recalculated conception date. A DNA test showed Laurean was not the father.

The apparent motive for the murder is anger at being falsely accused of rape and the associated stresses of being a rape suspect for many months. So why post, other than Dick McNeil a Code 45 alumnus is the defense counsel.

Crime & Consequences picks up on a point.

Myron Pitts, who covered the Hennis trial for the Fayetteville Observer, has this article summing up the evidence. The whole story is worth a read, but my favorite line is this: Hennis’ lawyer, Frank Spinner, said at the bottom of the courthouse steps that the jury never got to know his client, who did not testify. The jurors instead were treated to gruesome photos of the murder scene, he said. Um, excuse me, Mr. Spinner, but whose choice was it not to testify? At common law, the defendant wasn’t allowed to testify, but we got rid of that rule a long, long time ago.