GI fighting Kuwait court-martial for rap lyrics - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

GI fighting Kuwait court-martial for rap lyrics

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Lawyers for a Fort Stewart soldier charged with making threats in an angry hip-hop song he recorded have asked a federal judge to stop the Army from transferring him to Kuwait for his court-martial.

The Army has said it plans to fly Spc. Marc A. Hall overseas to allow witnesses in his infantry now serving in Iraq to testify without returning to the U.S. Hall was charged in December with making threats in conversations with fellow soldiers and in a song he posted on his Web site called “Stop Loss” that heavily criticizes the Army.

Hall’s attorneys say the Army would violate his right to a fair trial by moving his case to a “war zone” where few civilian witnesses or lawyers would travel to defend him. Hall, 34, has been jailed in southern Georgia.

A motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Savannah seeks a judge’s order to force the military to keep Hall’s court-martial in the U.S. His attorneys say they’re asking a civilian court to intervene because Hall’s case hasn’t been assigned to a military judge.

“You can’t force civilian witnesses to go overseas to testify, and many just wouldn’t be able to,” David Gespass, a civilian attorney for Hall, said Tuesday. “That’s substantively being deprived of a complete defense.”

Hall, of Coward, S.C., wrote and recorded “Stop Loss” last year to vent his anger at the Army’s decision to keep him in uniform past his date to leave the military. He posted the song on his Web site, played it for members of his infantry unit and mailed a copy to the Pentagon.

Hall was arrested in December, shortly before his unit deployed to Iraq, after Fort Stewart commanders deemed the song’s lyrics contained a threat to his unit. On the recording, Hall raps about opening fire with his military-issue M4 rifle.

“I got a [expletive] magazine with 30 rounds, on a three-round burst, ready to fire down,” Hall raps on the recording. “Still against the wall, I grab my M4, spray and watch all the bodies hit the floor.”

The charges against Hall also allege that he told soldiers at Fort Stewart he would “go on a rampage” and that he “was planning on shooting the brigade and battalion commanders.”

Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson said Tuesday that the post would no longer comment on Hall’s case because it had already been transferred to the Army command in Baghdad. Lt. Col. Eric Bloom, an Army spokesman in Iraq, did not immediately return a phone call and e-mail seeking comment.

Larson had previously said Hall’s command felt it couldn’t take any perceived threats idly after the November shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, where an Army psychiatrist was charged with murdering 13 people.

Gespass said Hall was making a political statement with his song and intended no real violence. He said Hall’s defense would likely include expert witnesses on hip-hop culture, who may be reluctant to travel to Iraq or Kuwait.

“I would think you would want people to testify about the nature of hip-hop and that those things contained in the song are not necessarily things to be taken seriously,” Gespass said.