The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has put a temporary hold on the prosecution of Pfc. Andrew Holmes, a soldier at Joint Base Lewis-McChord who stands accused of killing an unarmed Afghan man last January.

By Hal Bernton

Seattle Times staff reporter

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has put a temporary hold on the prosecution of Pfc. Andrew Holmes, a soldier accused of killing an unarmed Afghan man last January.

The court in Virginia is responding to a motion filed by Holmes’ defense counsel Daniel Conway, who argued that a restrictive order limiting access to photos of the victim violated Holmes’ right to a public trial and the presentation of important evidence.

“This is quite an unusual circumstance,” Conway said Saturday. “It is not very often that you see petitions to an appeals court at this stage of a proceeding, and we are pleased that the court acted so quickly. It is a very serious issue.” [Read more...]

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To the thousands of Michael Behenna supporters:

The New York Times recently reported (see link below) that the US military has initiated a policy to “reintegrate” imprisoned Taliban fighters to their Afghan communities. These Taliban fighters were caught with evidence that they had killed our soldiers, but are released to their families in an active war zone with merely a ‘pledge’ that they will not return to the Taliban. This appears to be the latest attempt to win the hearts and minds of our enemies and taking the ‘catch and release policy’ to a whole new level.

This brings us to Michael’s case. Michael has been incarcerated by the Army for over a year now. We have asked at every level that Michael’s constitutional right to a fair trial be granted so that all the evidence is disclosed to the jury. Doesn’t seem too much to ask for an American citizen who fought for his country does it? Yet Michael’s request for a new trial has been stranded. The Army seems to be in no hurry to have Michael’s case in front of the Army Court of Appeals as they have yet to file their response to Michael’s brief which was filed back in December 2009.

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Crossposted from Congress.org

Subject: RE: PFC ANDREW HOLMES

To: Sen. Mike Crapo

November 3, 2010

Dear Senator Crapo,

I am writing to you in regards to PFC Andrew Holmes, who is being held awaiting his Article 32 hearing at Ft. Lewis McChord. Myself and my family have known the Holmes family for many years. PFC Holmes (I will call him Andy) is a wonderful young man and has a huge, kind heart. This is a young man that goes out of his way to help people. I have a 24 year old disabled daughter, Andy always saw past her disabilities and just loves her for who she is. To this day, if Andy were to walk through our front door my daughter would run and jump into his arms. This does not describe a person that is willingly capable of what the Army is charging him with.

Despite all he has had to through since the tender age of 18 when his Mom Dana sent him off to war in Afghanistan through the present, I could guarantee you that if you were to go meet Andy you would still see a smile on his face…amazing. Andy chose to join the military and wanted to help keep our country safe during these trying times. He was very passionate to obtain this goal in the U.S. Army and we, his friends and family were never so proud to see him do this even though we knew he would be in a dangerous place.

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