Via CBS/AP:

(CBS/AP) The government’s case against a Marine accused of fatally shooting Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha lacks sufficient evidence to go to a court-martial and should be dropped, a hearing officer determined.

The murder charges were brought against Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt for killing three Iraqi brothers in November 2005.

Haditha is a town of 70,000, in Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni resistance, where, among the residents, anti-American passions run high, reports CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley. In the months before Sharratt’s unit arrived, other Marines there had suffered some of the heaviest causalities in all of Iraq, including the bombing of an armored vehicle that killed 14 Marines. Days before that, six Marines in Haditha were ambushed, tortured and killed. The enemy put it on the Internet

The hearing officer, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, wrote in a report released by the defense Tuesday that those charges were based on unreliable witness accounts, insupportable forensic evidence and questionable legal theories. He also wrote that the case could have dangerous consequences on the battlefield, where soldiers might hesitate during critical moments when facing an enemy.

“The government version is unsupported by independent evidence,” Ware wrote in the 18-page report. “To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.”

[…]

The recommendation to drop the murder charge is nonbinding. A final decision about whether Sharratt should stand trial will be made by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general overseeing the case.

Prosecutors at Sharratt’s preliminary hearing introduced several accounts from Iraqis that said Sharratt had separated four men from a group of women and children and ordered them into a house. There, prosecutors said, he shot three of them and when he ran out of bullets the squad leader Wuterich allegedly shot the fourth.

Ware deemed the witness accounts and testimony given by other Marines unreliable.

At home in Canonsburg, Pa., Sharratt’s family said the news was huge.

“That report is a declaration of Justin’s innocence,” said Sharratt’s mother, Theresa. “This is very, very good news.”

Defense attorneys James Culp and Gary Myers said in a statement that the report “reflected the value of the calm of a courtroom and the adversarial process.”

This is the second time an investigating officer has recommended charges not continue to trial in connection with the Haditha killings. In the case of Marine lawyer Capt. Randy W. Stone, the investigating officer recommended Stone’s dereliction of duty charge be dealt with administratively.

McQ responds:

Seems Murtha’s unseemly and prejudicial pronouncements of guilt may be completely unfounded. That, of course, comes as no particular surprise given the source. But my guess is, if he says anything, it won’t be an apology. Instead I’d be more inclined to believe he’d claim “whitewash” and question the integrity of the Article 32 investigating officer.

The Let Freedom Ring blog is all over this, and wonders how Rep. Murtha, who has led the charge against the accused (along with a willing and hungry media), is feeling right about now.

Stay tuned …

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