Never a lawyer around when you need one (UPDATED)

On April 17th, Army Spc. Mario Lozano will be tried in absentia for the murder of an Italian secret service agent in Baghdad. Spc. Lozano manned the machine gun on Route Irish the night pro-insurgent reporter Giuliana Sgrena was released, and the car carrying Sgrena failed to stop when Army searchlights and lasers turned on it. Fearing it was a car bomb, Spc. Lozano fired at the car and killed Nicola Calipari, an Italian hero who had just helped to spring Sgrena from her terrorist captors.

This is another friendly fire tragedy, and the United States has cleared Lozano of any wrongdoing. But Italian prosecutors think this was a deliberate murder. It's in the news because Rep. Peter King, who once served in Lozano's regiment, is condemning the trial as a farce. (JYB tailwag: MM.)

What caught my eye was this quote from the Post article, emphasis mine:

A National Guard spokesman, stressing the matter was a regular Army issue, said Lozano was "not being left out to dry," and there was a "combination of civilian and military" lawyers on the case.

That's not quite what Spc. Lozano's legal defense website said on April 6th:

Today Mario Lozano is under indictment by an allied nation. The US Army’s response has been to assign Mr. Lozano a part time lawyer. They are encouraging Mr. Lozano to allow the Italians to prosecute him unchallenged. The official stance is that as long as the trial is in absentia, Mario need not worry about the consequences. They are continuing to discourage Mario from seeking a dedicated civilian attorney.

Several prestigious civilian attorneys have recently met and conferred with Spc Lozano. The process of building a legal defense team of civilian and military lawyers is underway. A team that can successfully exonerate Spc Lozano in Italian Court, based on evidence, and jurisdiction, is expected to be up and running by next week. But Spc Lozano is a soldier, not a man of means. The civilian defense costs even with pro bono services by some attorneys will be expensive.

And now we run square beneath the hooves of ol' See-Dubya's hobby horse: This is a complicated international case, and important legal principles are involved. So why haven't ten thousand lawyers jumped in to help this guy pro bono, like they did to defend terrorists in Gitmo? Why does Khaled Sheikh Mohammed get the benefit not only of white-shoe lawyers attacking the authority for his detention for free, but also of a Shearman & Sterling anti-Gitmo PR camapign--while Spc. Lozano is scrambling to raise money and assemble a legal team eleven days before his trial?

Is it because the big firms lack an opportunity to kiss up to big-money state clients like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia? Is that why they haven't jumped out there to start up a PR campaign to swing public opinion behind Spc. Lozano? Or is it because everybody knows the way you make your bones in the big law firm world is doing pro-bono work to advance the Left's agenda, and that helping out American soldiers and conservative causes doesn't cut the mustard?

If it's the latter, it has to change. And clients have to drive it. Now that's a heretical thought. They're already trying to disbar one lawyer here in California--Charles "Cully" Stimson--for even expressing it.

If you haven't read my rant about that, please do follow the link. I've been on that tear since January and the problem keeps coming up. Accused terrorists seem never lack for well-heeled pro-bono lawyers; accused servicemen always seem to. It's a disgrace.

To be cross-posted at Patterico's Pontifications.

UPDATE: And at Patterico's, Friend of Mario Lozano John Byrnes, who wrote one of those NY Post articles linked above, stopped by the comments to tell us more:

Some good questions being asked here. Some I can answer some I can’t. The basic situation with Mario today looks like this. The Army JAG has provided hime with legal support in the form of a part time National Guard attorney for several months. Two weeks ago they provided him a full time Army lawyer. Also two weeks ago they provided him with an Italian lawyer who I hear has a pretty good reputation. Mario only filed the paper work on the Italian lawyer last week.

I don’t know how much that lawyer has communicated to the JAG. Not much info has filtered to Mario. That lawyer said he was going to seeek a postponement, a good idea, since the trial is scheduled for a week from today.

This is why he needs a good American trial lawyer supported by independent funds. The army has been dilatory, to say the least. They discouraged Mario from seeking civilian counsel, or raising money. I’m guessing out of concern for their image. Therein lies the crux. Even if the Army pays for his civilian lawyer here, it puts them in the driver seat. So we have finally convinced him he needs his own independent counsel.

The idea of shopping this out to a large firm that would do it pro bono did occur to us. I did ask one former US senator (Dem) if his firm was interested; he politely replied they did not do criminal prosecutions. So be it. Two very successful criminal trial lawyers have signed on. One of them has convinced the JAG that they should cooperate with him. That’s where we are. So I and the friends of the 69th Infantry are asking for supoport.

John blogs at "punditsmyass".