Jury Selection on Tuesday in Chen Hazing Case

The 12 servicemembers filed into the dark paneled, modern courtroom on Fort Bragg to determine if they would be serving on the jury panel in the highly publicized case connected to the October 2011 death of Pvt. Danny Chen.

Dressed in the Army Service Uniform, the five women and seven men sat in two rows across from the judge answering qualifying questions to determine their eligibility to sit on the military jury for the U.S. v. Holcomb case.

Earlier in the morning on Tuesday, the accused, Sgt. Adam Holcomb,
assigned to 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Fort Wainwright,
Alaska appeared before the Military Judge Maj. Bret Batdorff when his Defense requested by trial that the jury panel consist of 1/3 enlisted personnel.

As of July 20, Maj. Batdorff reported that the alternate jury members were selected and the court-martial convening order resulted in a diverse panel of six white servicemembers and six African-American servicemembers.

The defense team is made up of Capt. Anthony Osborne, the Defense Counsel, Capt. Dennis Hernden, the Assistant Defense Counsel and the prosecution team members are Maj. Steve Berlin and Capt. Blake Doughty.

The 12 servicemembers, ending in 10 by the end of Tuesday, sat in the jury box and answered a list of questions by both the defense and the prosecution, confirming or refuting each question with either a verbal 'yes' or 'no', or by raising a hand when a question pertained to their past experience or belief.

Certain servicemembers were called back individually to answer questions by both the defense and the prosecution in the final stages of the jury selection.

The first officer called back in was Col. Barber who indicated that he had not been previously deployed to a designated combat zone.

Barber was questioned by the Defense for confirming that he had heard the name Danny Chen before. The inquiry revealed that Barber saw an article that morning that mentioned charges against the Defendant and that hazing was also mentioned in the article. Col. Barber also mentioned that he noticed that Pvt. Chen's family came down from New York.

"I liked that the family came down to show support," said Col. Barber when asked about his thoughts on the article. "I have no predisposed opinions of guilt or innocence."

Another line of questioning for Col. Barber included a January email sent out by the Chief of Staff outlining the Army's stance on hazing.

Col. Barber stated that he recalled the email to take on the tone that hazing can harm our Army and that it's the type of hazing taking place on today's college campuses.

"I generally agreed with what was in the email," said Col. Barber. "It raised visibility of the issue."

Lt. Col. Anderson was called back into the courtroom next. Anderson had previously indicated that she had knowldege of law enforcement and confirmed for Maj. Berlin, the Prosection, that her brother-in-law is a Sheriff in Maryland and her spouse serves on an Military Police unit.

Both servicemembers were asked about their previous encounters with punishment, or past corrective training.

Lt. Col. Anderson indicated that in her past military career she had issued several Article 15s and Chapters as well as two permanent party soldiers  who went through courts-martial and she had testified in those cases.

"The term corrective training is unclear to me, if it's doing push ups - that happened to me," stated Lt. Col. Anderson. "Corrective training is justified if it helps the individual soldier and unit as a whole. It should be administered."

The court adjourned at 6:10 p.m. with Pvt. Chen's mother taking the stand as  the first witness called by the prosecution team. Mrs. Su Zhen Chen dispelled claims made against her son that the family had disowned him for his decision to join the Army. She said she believes her son's death was not a suicide and hopes the Army lawyers can help her find the truth.

Sgt. Adam Holcomb is the first of eight servicemembers to go before the military judge inside Fort Bragg's courthouse.

Valerie Holcomb, the soldier's mother, travelled from Youngstown, Ohio to support her son during the trial. She said this past year has been hard on him, not being able to do his normal job and she remains hopeful that the truth will come out this week, and he can get back to serving his country.

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