Charges dropped against U.S. Marine in Haditha case

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Military prosecutors dropped all charges on Friday against a U.S. Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children at Haditha in 2005, abruptly dismissing the case on the eve of trial with little explanation.

Lance Cpl Stephen B. Tatum became the fifth Haditha defendant out of eight to see charges dropped in a case that brought international condemnation on U.S. troops in Iraq. Three Marines, including accused ringleader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, still face court-martial later this year.

Though prosecutors had reportedly offered Tatum, 26, immunity to testify against Wuterich, defence attorneys said no such deal had been struck.

"Lance Corporal Tatum is not trading his testimony for this dismissal," defence attorney Jack Zimmermann told Reuters in an interview. "He may very well be called as a witness for the prosecution or the defence, but he is going to be a neutral witness and will tell the truth, as he's always done."

Zimmermann said he believed the case was abandoned because it was "weak from the start." He described his client and the man's family as "relieved" and tearful at the news.

"I think when the prosecution realized we were going to trial and that he was going to tell the truth, as he has all along, this experienced set of prosecutors realized it wasn't really fair to dump all this on a lance corporal who was responding the way he was trained," Zimmermann told Reuters.

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Word of the development came as jury selection was about to begin in Tatum's court-martial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in California.