The good news is that five Blackwater security guards accused of murdering innocent Iraqi civilians will be placed on trial. Guilty or innocent, I think Blackwater needs to go on trial as any American citizen  who commits a crime overseas. I don’t believe Blackwater should be immune from prosecution as soldiers in Iraq are. Soldiers are subject to UCMJ law and are liable for misconduct and crime through military channels.

If Blackwater isn’t liable through UCMJ or liable (as they argue) to be prosecuted under U.S. Federal law, then who’s doing the checks and balances on these guys? But I guess that’s been the argument all along, now hasn’t it?

So, here we are with five Blackwater security guards accused of opening fire on a crowded street in Baghdad in 2007 that left 17 Iraqi’s dead including children. The U.S. government wants to bring them to trial in Washington D.C. which is where crimes committed by American’s overseas usually go on trial.

But the bad news is that the five Blackwater guards went into hiding only to surrender in UTAH where gun laws and (apparently) compassion for lawlessness and murder are doled out at a higher rate than in D.C.  Tricky tricky!

It’s not uncommon for lawyers to try to get their cases in front of favorable juries, but often it is difficult in criminal cases. GOP Sen. Ted Stevens unsuccessfully tried to move his recent corruption trial to his home state Alaska from the District of Columbia.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that crimes committed overseas are normally charged in Washington. They also have been negotiating a plea deal with a sixth guard. Documents related to those negotiations already are filed in Washington federal court.

I guess the theory here is that if Mormons can put gay marriage to rest in California (Prop-8), then they can put to rest these pesky murder charges again five non-Mormon, non-Utahian Blackwater guards?

UPDATE:

“A federal judge on Monday ordered the guards to report Jan. 6 to a District of Columbia courthouse, where they are expected to plead not guilty.”

So much for Utahian leniency.