PFC James Burmeister Receives Six Months And A Bad Conduct Discharge.
Jim Pence July 17th, 2008
PFC James Burmeister’s Court Martial was held yesterday at the Pike Hall (the Legal Offices) building #1310 court room in Fort Knox, Kentucky. This was my first time to attend a Court Martial and now I understand why Court Martial’s are seldom covered by the press. If you’re a member of the press you have to be escorted to the court sight and and off of the military post, when the trial is over, by Government Personnel. No cameras, camcorders, cell phones, audio recording devices, etc. were allowed in the court room. Our government escorts were very nice with the exception of one and I will assume, this time, that she was just having a bad day. To tell the truth I felt like I was in another country where freedom of speech and transparency were not very high on the agenda.
The court room was very small with 3 rows of church like pews. The first row had three 6 ft. pews reserved for witness’s. The second row had two 6ft. pews for the public and press and the third row had one 6 ft. pew for the public and press. We were told when the few seats available were full no one else would be allowed in the court room and if we left the court room our seats could not be guaranteed when we returned. Members of the press attending the court martial were, WHAS TV , The Louisville Courier Journal , The Hardin County News Enterprise and yours truly James Pence a video blogger. If you do the math and add up the available seats, it’s easy to conclude that the government didn’t want many folks at this Court Martial.
PFC James Burmeister pleaded guilty to AWOL and stated his reason for going AWOL while on R&R in Germany. He said could no longer participate in the "Bait and Kill" and "Small Kill Teams". PFC James Burmeister’s defense said James had reported the "Bait and Kill" and "Small Kill Teams" to his chain of command and he was told to keep it quite and it was then that James decided to go AWOL and expose the "Bait and Kill" and "Small Kill Teams" to the press and when James found out through and email, of which he has a screen shot of, in late February, 2008 from a soldier in his Company that the "Bait and Kill" and "Small Kill Teams" practices had been stopped he turned himself in to the Military in early March, 2008, because his mission had been accomplished. PFC James Burmeister also agreed to allow the Military Judge hear the case and render the sentence.
The prosecution called several witness one of them brought up this PBS transcript . The prosecution also brought up the web site Courage To Resist .
PFC James Burmeister’s parents testified on PFC James Burmeister’s behalf and their testimony was very moving.
The judge listened to all the evidence and left the court room to to make his decision. The judge retuned about 45 min. later with a verdict of 6 months confinement with 21 days of pre trial confinement to be considered as time served and a Bad Conduct Discharge. When the sentence was announced James’ didn’t flinch, but his father fell to his knees in disbelief and shock! PFC James Burmeister and his parents were allowed a few minutes together after the Court Martial and they will be going back to Oregon to await their son’s release.
I’ve wrote this article to the best of my ability with my notes and my memory and I suggest if the US Government doesn’t agree with my account of the events they should have allowed the Court Martial to have been video taped!!!
I took a few photos outside, prior and after the Court Martial, click here to view them.
The video below is PFC James Burmeister’s father directly after the Court Martial
- Fort Knox , Iraq War , James Burmeister , Mitch McConnell , Video , War , Youtube , bait and kill , court martial
- Comments(6)
The bait and kill teams show just what kind of trash Dick Cheney and George Bush are. George Bush has said that he would take full responsibility for his actions many times. Well, bail and kill is murder in some cases. I suppose that it is hard to serve in the military when your commander - in – chief is lying trash. You must remember that George Bush has declared himself the “decider” and he does not care what the Constitution says or what the Citizens of the United States think. This war was started on the premise of weapons of mass destruction and there are none. The only plausible explanation for George Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Colin Powell lying to the United States citizenry and the legislature to start this war is that Sadam Hussein threatened George Bush’s father in the early 1990s as there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We must always respect the members of the military who are doing their Constitutional duty even though there is trash in the White House. We must remember that Mitch McConnell supports the lie and the liar George Bush. Mitch will not talk to the average citizens of Kentucky because they are beneath him in his mind. In November let’s correct the problems. If you vote for McConnell or McCain and your livelihood is exported to a foreign country, you will have gotten what you voted for. If you vote for McConnell or McCain, and the wars (present and future) in the Middle East bankrupt the United States, you will have gotten what you have voted for. If you vote for McConnell or McCain and you see the foreign financed public debt grow and grow until a foreign country owns a good portion of the United States and has political power in the United States, you will have gotten what you have voted for.
what hasn’t bushit screwed up?maybe the next President can fix lot of these case
Thousands of Whistleblowers Silenced By Bush DOJ!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-kall/thousands-of-whistleblowe_b_110905.html
Good job, Jim. Very moving and an important story.
Just a quick comment. My son and I attended (for a half hour or so) a murder trial in Clay County Kentucky this week. It had a jury and it was open to the public. Yes, if you are a civilian, the U.S. Constitution guarantees you the right to a public and speedy jury trial. Be thankful you have those Constitutional guarantees for civilian trials. Kenneth Stepp.
Mr. Burmeister also had a right to a jury trial (”members” to those unfamiliar with courts-martial) and such could have included enlisted members (his peers). He chose judge alone, a not uncommon choice, doubtless hoping for more leniency in sentencing, which was a wise choice. Mr. Pence is right, press can come in, but just bring your notepad. That has not changed since my active duty days.
I am a paralegal specialist for the Army. I am currently on assignment in Afghanistan. Listen this kid messed up. Protesting a tatic being used by your chain of command by going AWOL is the wrong answer. Mr. Burmeister should be ashamed of himself for thinking that he was not going to get hemmed up for his actions. You simply cannot ran away from something just because you don’t like it. That is not how this PFC was trained and it is not how the Army works. If he had a problem with any tatic that was being used he should have took up to his Sergeant Major if no one else would listen. I am very liberal, but I cannot say this guy’s actions were okay because they aren’t. I am glad that justice spoke in this case. He deserved what he got!