Busy week, the one ending October 17, 1993.
Starting with news from Somalia on the release of Michael Durant, returning to a hero’s welcome Saturday as a boisterous crowd of friends, relatives and soldiers welcomed the Somalia battle veteran back to his home base. As about 3,500 people cheered happily, Durant waved a small American flag and a maroon beret from his Night Stalker Army unit as he was carried by stretcher from an airplane to a waiting ambulance. “This is your family,” Gen. Jack Keane, Fort Campbell’s commanding officer, told him. “We’re going to take care of you.
We’re going to get you back on your feet and back in the cockpit.” Before he left the C-9 aircraft, his mother-in-law carried Durant’s 14-month-old son, Joey, onto the plane. It was the first time Durant had seen his son in two months. The 32-year-old helicopter pilot’s 11 days of captivity in Somalia helped spark a cry for the United States to end its military involvement there.
And the dismissal of three jurors in the trial of Damian Williams and Henry Watson, accused of beating truck driv er Reginald Denny and seven others on April 29, 1992, during the Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of four po lice officers in the first Rodney King trial, highlights the complexities of the case. The jury faces a formidable array of issues. i Criminal law requires that the prose cution prove beyond reasonable doubt, first, that the accused had actually en gaged in a wrongful act, and second, that there was criminal intent, or culpability. The defense has challenged the prosecution on both grounds. Though there is no doubt as to the wrongfulness of the acts committed against Reginald Denny, but defense attorney Edi Faal, acting for Damian Williams, has argued consistently that there is insufficient evidence to identify his client as the person assaulting Reginald Denny with a brick.
Faal’s arguments challenge prosecution’s key piece of evidence, namely helicopter reporter Robert Tur s videotape of the beating. On the basis of the first element of a crime commission of a criminal act there would clearly be no legal grounds for convicting Williams in the face of convincing evidence of mistaken identity.
Finally; Holding the top echelon of the Navy and Marine Corps accountable for the Tailhook scandal, the Pentagon censured three admirals and reprimanded another 30 top-ranking officers for failing to stop or report sexual assaults that occurred while they were attending the group’s 1991 convention in Las Vegas. The disciplinary actions were taken by Navy Secretary John Dalton with the approval of Defense Secretary Les Aspin. Among the 30 receiving reprimands was Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the nation’s top naval officer, whom Aspin last week decided not to fire as punishment over the Tailhook incident.
The three letters of censure are considered grievous blemishes for officials of such high military rank. The lesser reprimands will become a part of the 30 officers’ permanent personnel files and may affect future assignments and promotions. Two other top officers were exonerated.
And while they were celebrating Michael Durant’s release from Somalia, that’s just a small slice of what happened for this week, ending October 17th in 1993 as reported by ABC Radio’s World News This Week.
