U.S. military jury acquits soldier of homicide charges

DONGDUCHEON, South Korea -- An American soldier was acquitted of negligent homicide charges Wednesday in a traffic accident that killed two South Korean girls. Outraged activists said they would hold demonstrations to protest the verdict.

A U.S. military jury cleared Sgt. Fernando Nino in a three-day court martial. If convicted, he would have faced up to six years in a U.S. prison for the deaths of the 14-year-old girls on June 13 near the border with North Korea.

Col. Kurt Stein, one of the seven members of the jury, announced the verdict after three hours of deliberations. The prosecutor cannot appeal.

South Koreans had earlier held protests to demand that the soldier be tried in a South Korean court, saying the legal code that governs the 37,000 U.S. soldiers in South Korea allows many GI crimes to go unpunished.

"We expected the military court to acquit Nino because the case was not thoroughly investigated and prosecutors did not have enough evidence," said Lee So-hee, spokeswoman of a civic group called National Campaign for Eradication of Crime by U.S. Troops in Korea.

"The trial was a superficial stunt designed to diffuse rising anger among South Korean people," Lee said.

Choi Keun-ho, another activist, described the court martial as "a trial of an accomplice by accomplices" and said 10 activists planned a weeklong protest outside the White House beginning Dec. 2.

But Lt. Gen. Charles Campbell, commander of the Eighth U.S. Army, said the process had been open to the Korean public and that all the evidence was considered in reaching a verdict.

"It is a system that guarantees fair and open proceedings and considers an accused innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," Campbell said.

U.S. military officials have repeatedly apologized for the incident. The United States gave a total of $323,000 in compensation to the families of the victims, and U.S. soldiers in South Korea also donated $18,900.

The vehicle was going uphill and around a bend in a rural area when it hit the girls. The U.S. military often conducts exercises in and near civilian areas, which is sometimes a source of tension in crowded South Korea.

In a closing statement, the prosecutor said Nino wasn't paying attention and did not notice soldiers in an oncoming Bradley fighting vehicle who were shouting and signaling at him to stop ahead of the girls, Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun.

But the defense lawyer, Maj. Robert Broughton, said there was no evidence that Nino was not paying attention and that he had tried in vain to warn Walker through the vehicle's defective communication system.

The trial was held at Camp Casey, a U.S. military base north of Seoul.

Nino, whose hometown was not released, and Walker, of Acworth, Ga., belong to the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division.

Under a bilateral defense treaty, the U.S. military has jurisdiction over American soldiers accused of crimes while on duty, though it can allow South Korea to try them on a case-by-case basis.