Soldier Not Guilty Of Murder
(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) LONG BINH (South Vietnam), July 15.
An American general court-martial yesterday acquitted a young United States non-commissioned officer of the premeditated killing of an unarmed Vietnamese prisoner. The five-man court took 100 minutes to find Specialist 4 John Lanasa, aged 23, not guilty of killing Do Van Man, a suspected Viet Cong prisoner last Septem ber.
Lanasa, a sergeant at the time in an infantry platoon of the Third Brigade, United States Ninth Infantry Division, had been accused of unpremeditated murder and assault on Man during an operation near Phuoc Tan Hung village, 25 miles south-west of Saigon in the Mekong Delta last September 5. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. The nine-day trial heard how Lanasa had taken the man, who was found by the platoon hiding in a bunker, to a nearby wood and shot him in the head with an Ml 6 rifle.
The platoon commander, First Lieutenant James Duffy, aged 23, gave Lanasa the order to have Man shot, the court was told. Duffy was sentenced to six months gaol last April for un-
premeditated murder, the charge arising from the same incident.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 13
Word Count
195Soldier Not Guilty Of Murder Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 13
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