The US Navy announced June 7 that it will appeal an appeals court ruling overturning the conviction of US Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III. Hutchins, who was convicted in 2007 for the 2006 kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, remains in the brig at Camp Pendleton while the Navy appeals to the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Hutchins' defense attorney Marine Capt. Babu Kaza has described the appeal as without merit, and has called it politically motivated. The appeal comes despite a recommendation to the contrary by a legal adviser that it would not likely yield a different result. If the appeal fails, the case would be returned to Camp Pendleton where a general will decide whether to retry the case.

Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced on May 16 that the partial recount of the March parliamentary elections will not alter seat allocations awarded in accordance with the provisional results. The commission held that the original count showed no signs of fraud or major irregularities, and confirmed the two-seat lead of the the Iraqiya coalition of Iyad Allawi over al-Maliki's State of Law coalition.

Hundreds of Iraqis were injured and 85 killed in a series of bomb attacks across the country May 10, marking the bloodiest day since the beginning of this year. The capital alone was hit by more than a dozen attacks, carried out by roadside bombs, rigged cars and automatic weapons fired from cars against police and security forces at checkpoints. In Basra 13 were killed and 64 injured in an attack apparently aimed against a police patrol. Nonetheless it turned out that almost all of the victims were civilians, mostly hit in crowded places.

A Virginia military jury on May 6 acquitted US Navy SEAL Matthew McCabe on charges of assaulting a high-profile Iraqi detainee. Petty Officer 2nd Class McCabe was accused of punching Ahmed Hashim Abed, implicated in the killing of four American contractors in Fallujah in 2004. McCabe was charged with assault, dereliction of duty, and lying to investigators, and he could have faced up to a year in prison if convicted. The prosecution's key witness testified that he saw McCabe punch Abed, but the testimony was contradicted by several defense witnesses. The jury deliberated for an hour and 40 minutes before returning a verdict of not guilty.

The US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on May 3 heard arguments in the appeal of Army Spc. Charles Graner, sentenced to 10 years for abuses committed at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Graner, alleged ringleader of the Abu Ghraib abuse, was convicted in 2005 of conspiracy, assault, maltreating prisoners, dereliction of duty, and committing indecent acts. Graner's lawyer argued that the defense was denied access to classified documents that may have shown some of the detainee treatment was actually part of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The government argued that the defense had access to the documents before the trial. A ruling is expected by August.

Calling it a case of "collateral murder," the WikiLeaks website has released a video of a US Army Apache helicopter in Baghdad in 2007 repeatedly opening fire on a group of men that included a Reuters photographer and his driver—and then on a van that stopped to rescue one of the wounded men.

The State of Law Coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on March 17 asked the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to recount ballots cast in the March 7 parliamentary election, alleging fraud. State of Law spokesperson Ali al-Adib claimed that the ballots were manipulated by the manager of an electronic counting center who is allegedly linked to the rival Iraqiya bloc, led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi.

A US federal judge has ruled that the Research Triangle Institute (RTI), a USAID-funded organization providing local governance services in Iraq, can be sued in the United States for the deaths of two Iraqi women killed by their security guards in Baghdad in October of 2007. The judge will also allow the victims' attorneys discovery on whether the security company, Unity Resources Group, has sufficient business contacts in the United States to be sued in a US court. Whether Unity Resources Group can be sued should be decided within the next few months.