Military and legal experts were upset at the acquittal by a civilian jury of a former Marine who was charged with a war crime in Iraq. They believe it is incorrect to ask civilians to make judgments concerning events in combat and such decisions are best made by a military court. Juror Nicole Peters complained, “I don’t think we had any business doing that(evaluating a death in combat). I thought it was unfair to us and to him.” Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor, argued: “It’s a very reasoned response from those jurors because they apparently recognized it was not something they were well-suited to determine.” The argument being advanced by legal experts is the inability of someone who has never served in a combat zone to evaluate a situation in which prisoners are killed.

Civilians who have never served in the military nor ever been in combat simply lack the understanding to evaluate the difference between killing a prisoner who might cause harm and murdering an innocent person because of one’s personality and rage.