You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

1st Soldier Court-Martialed in Hazing Death of Pvt Danny Chen Found Not Guilty of Negligent Homicide

HeadlineJul 31, 2012

The first of eight U.S. soldiers court-martialed in the death of Army Private Danny Chen has been found not guilty on the most serious offense of causing Chen’s death through negligence — but has been convicted on lesser charges. A 19-year-old Chinese American, Chen allegedly took his own life just weeks after he was deployed to Afghanistan last October. His family says Chen had been abused by comrades on an almost daily basis, including racist hazing, with soldiers throwing rocks at him, calling him ethnic slurs and forcing him to do push-ups or hang upside down with his mouth full of water. All eight accused soldiers were Chen’s superiors in rank. The first soldier to stand trial, Sergeant Adam Michael Holcomb, was acquitted of negligent homicide on Monday but found guilty on two counts of maltreatment and one count of assault consummated by battery. After the verdict, Elizabeth OuYang of the Organization of Chinese Americans said Holcomb should be discharged.

Elizabeth OuYang: “If you are going to send a strong signal to both our community and to the community at large that there is no room, there is no room for any so-called superior who harbors racist feelings to be in the Army, than you dishonorably discharge Sgt. Adam Holcomb from the United States Army. He is a disgrace to the Army. He does not represent the principles of respect that the Army so upholds.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top