All the Marines involved in massacring civilians in Haditha were only charged with "disobeying direct order" and only received pay cut upon their discharge.
A Board of Inquiry found that there was no misconduct even though the lower standard of proving guilt, preponderance of the evidence, was applied instead of reasonable doubt.
The Thomas More Law Center along with national radio host Michael Savage defended Chessani against the charge that he failed to investigate the killings.
[5] In 2008 an appeal filed on behalf of the Marine Corps, claiming that the judge abused his power when he dismissed dereliction of duty charges against Chessani in killings.
Instead, he ordered Chessani to face a Navy administrative procedure, called a Board of Inquiry,[9] which found no misconduct and recommended that he be allowed to retire without loss of rank.
Any punishment of LtCol Chessani handed down by a Board of Inquiry would be a miscarriage of justice because he did nothing wrong, and our lawyers will mount the same vigorous defense in this administrative proceeding as they did in the criminal.