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Why did Pfc Hatcher receive a longer prison term than Sgt Meserve? (SA)

posted 13 years ago by mlinick
4 replies | jump to latest

Does anybody have any ideas why the character PFC Herbert Hatcher [played by John C. Reilly] initially received a 15 year prison term while the character Sgt Tony Meserve [played by Sean Penn] received a 10 year prison term? i would think that the Sgt would have received a longer term than PFC Hatcher as it was the Sgt's idea to kidnap the girl so that he and his men could rape her, and it was the Sgt who ordered the murder of the girl. My research indicates that these are the initial prison terms handed out to the real people involved in this incident, that the Sgt received a 10 year term of imprisonment and the PFC received a 15 year term.

Also, shouldn't Capt. Hill have been punished for failing to immediately launch an investigation into Michael J. Fox's character Eriksson's claims that the other four soldiers had kidnapped, raped, and murdered a Vietnamese civilian? It seems to me he had a duty to promptly investigate the matter rather than to discourage Eriksson from pursuing it. Kidnapping, rape, and murder of a civilian are serious allegations and, if subsequently found to have occurred, extremely serious crimes. Capt. Hill was derelict in performing his duty as an officer.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] HecateMJF 12 years ago

maybe because this guy helped Sean Penn to hide the rape and even tells lies and they even ally to attack Erikkson together.

he not only rape, he also helps the main criminal (Sean Penn) to cover the rape affairs and made himself more serious and being charged for a longer jail term

[–] zackattack-1 11 years ago

Not sure about Hatcher, but maybe it's because of the old saying 'rank has its privileges'. Remember, their sentences were commuted.

As for Capt. Hill, he did launch an investigation but didn't make it a high priority. He probably did receive something like a letter of reprimand which wouldn't have gotten him in major trouble (as in court-martial), but it certainly would follow him for the rest of his career in the army; he'd probably never get promoted to rank as high as Lt. Col or above. He wasn't really discouraging Eriksson from pursuing it but was incompetent with the whole situation. Hill felt like he had other things to worry about with his own duties and didn't feel like the rape/murder was a high priority because he was rather skeptical about whether an attempt to pursue justice would be worth it since he didn't think his men would serve any hard time for their actions.