Marine Sergeant to Face Court-Martial in Abuse

Travis contends the Marines are rushing his and the other criminal cases to avoid embarrassment similar to that suffered by the Army.

"The Marines want to get this over [as] quickly as possible so it doesn't give them a black eye," Travis said. "When they saw and heard about what the Army was doing, they tried to hurry with the trial and keep it on hush."

A senior Marine defense lawyer also has expressed concern. The lawyer, Lt. Col. Colby C. Vokey, emphasized that he was not accusing the Marine Corps of any impropriety, but said the speed with which Sting and Trefney were found guilty was unusual. Vokey is the Marine Corps's regional defense counsel for the western United States and oversees the defense lawyers for the four Marines charged in the abuse.

"The process from the time of charge to the guilty plea was very quick, much more rapid than is common with the court-martial process," Vokey said in a telephone interview from Camp Pendleton, Calif. "It has been one of my concerns in the case. I just can't give you a reason why they proceeded so fast, other than to say that the case proceeded much faster than the standard case proceeds. There was a sense of urgency on the part of the prosecution that these cases be tried quickly."

Sting's father, Jeff Sting, said his son told him he had been given "about 30 minutes" to accept the plea offer from the military. "He wasn't offered the opportunity to seek any advice from beyond his legal counsel," Jeff Sting said in an interview. Sting's military lawyer, Maj. Steven P. Logan, did not respond to requests for comment.

Knapp defended the handling of Sting's case. "The court-martial was not rushed," he wrote. "Sting had a pretrial agreement and was pleading guilty. There was nothing to wait around for once he decided this and received a pretrial agreement."

Knapp also disputed that the timing of the court-martial was related to Abu Ghraib. The investigation into abuse at that prison began in January, and the photographs of abuse that created a public scandal were released in late April.

"The investigation and decision to charge those Marines was made in early April," when the electric-shock abuse was discovered, he said. "So it is ridiculous to say that this was in response to Abu Ghraib, because the dates don't coincide. No one here knew anything about Abu Ghraib yet."