Some Encouragement For Alexander?

[Khandro]

Let's hope we may see an end to this tawdry affair.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/09/senior-military-judge-mishandled-trial-jailed-marine-alexander/

[Gromit]

I read that earlier.

It seems odd that no one involved in the case knew that a guilty of manslaught verdict could have been given. Apparently the Judge did not know, or Blackman's defence lawyers.

[youngmafbog]

Yes, very odd.

[Khandro]

Miscarriage of justice? Money can't compensate for imprisonment, but I hope if cleared, he has a good entitlement.

[Gromit]

Khandro,

Even if this error does prove to be true, it is not a miscarriage of justice. He was found guilty. The difference between Murder and manslaught will mean a shorter jail term, not no jail term at all.

[Khandro]

Gromit; I'm no lawyer, but the headline says; "Senior military judge mishandled trial of jailed marine Alexander Blackman, official report finds."
So that sounds like a serious mistake made against him, also there is the claim that it wasn't murder, but that the man was already dead which has to be proven.

[Gromit]

// guilty of an “apparent failure” to properly apply the law when he failed to give a military jury the option of convicting Alexander Blackman of the lesser charge of manslaughter //

There was no jury, there was a Court Martial Board consisting of 7 members. They found him Guilty of Murder which carries a mandatory life sentence. The job of the judge is then to determine the minimum sentence that he would apply, which was 10 years, not life.
The Judge apparently should have given the Board the option of guilty of manslaughter, for which the maximum sentence is Life. Even if that had happened, the Judge is likely not to have sentence him to life, but to something less. As the Judge had determined the punishment be 10 years, then he would probably applied the same tariff to a manslaughter charge.

So far from being a miscarriage, it is a legal technicality.

[Khandro]

If you don't want your soldiers to kill people, don't send them to war.

[Gromit]

Khando

We are not totally barbarians. We have rules for war. We can kill in combat, but we cannot murder people. Blackman was prosecuted by the military, so they are well aware of the destinction.

[Khandro]

My father was in the RAF, WW2, he wasn't the one who actually pressed the bomb-release but was part of the team/chain of command leading to it, which led to the 'murder' of large numbers of military and civilian personnel. That was war.
Should he, and thousands of other members of the armed forces been so charged?

[Gromit]

No.
People are inadvertantly killed in wars, that is not murder.

The Military Court have jusged that in this case it was not an inadvertant killing but a deliberate murder.