Jailed for Hip Hop

Army Specialist Marc Hall returned home from a yearlong tour in Iraq, thinking he had completed his military service. But instead of getting discharged, he was told his active duty contract had been extended and he faced redeployment in Iraq again. Hall, falling victim to the practice of stop-loss, objected to his superiors and recorded a hip-hop song expressing his outrage. He sent a recording to the Pentagon in protest. Now, he’s been jailed and his trial has been scheduled in Iraq, a place he hoped never to see again.

Stop-loss is the ultimate slap in the face to a soldier. Sometimes referred to as “the back-door draft,” stop-loss is the involuntary extension of military contracts that forces soldiers to complete additional tours of duty, often used by the Department of Defense to cover troop commitments. Military personnel of all ranks have unequivocally referred it to as a leading cause of morale destruction. The phenomenon even became the subject of a film titled Stop-Loss released in 2008 and starring Ryan Phillipe.

Though President Barack Obama has publically promised to phase out the practice, the fact remains that the United States is short on troops in two complicated and unsuccessful wars so stop-loss continues. According to the Pentagon, there are currently 13,000 troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan under stop-loss.

SPC Marc A. Hall (Photo credit: stoplossmusic.org)

After recording his song in July, Hall continued to serve with his unit for four months in Fort Stewart, Ga., spent time with his daughter and his mother, and underwent mental health counseling. But in mid-November, as the redeployment of Hall’s unit loomed in the first week of December and tensions remained high in the wake of the Nov. 5 Ft. Hood shooting, Hall brought up his objections to his stop-loss orders to his commanders once again.

This time, his commanders used the song he recorded in protest to incarcerate him in Georgia’s Liberty County Jail on Dec. 12, the same week his unit redeployed to Iraq. He was charged five days later with, according to a press release from Ft. Stewart, five violations of the military code of conduct, “ two of those for wrongfully communicating a threat based on song lyrics.” The section of the code under which Hall was charged outlaws anything “to the prejudice of good order and discipline.” Or, in other words, it’s a rule on the books that allow military officials to charge a soldier based on their subjective belief of what they believe to be “good order and discipline.”

Hall remained in Liberty County Jail awaiting trial in the subsequent months, with only limited telephone contact with his mother and Jason Hurd, the Southeast field organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), an anti-war group for Veterans of which Hall is a member.

Hurd says that he believes the Army, freshly skittish from the Ft. Hood shooting, “overacted” and are now trying to make an example out of Hall by incarcerating him for a vague threat in a song. “I think they made a mistake here,” he says.

The song culminates in a verse saying, “Still against the war/I grab my M4/Spray and watch all the bodies hit the floor/I bet you’ll never stop-loss nobody no more.” Hall calls those words “a free expression of how people feel about the Army and its stop-loss policy.”

On Feb. 1, Hall formally applied for discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector. Though his application remains confidential, he recounts how his year in Iraq transformed him personally. Furthermore, Hurd at IVAW says Hall’s priority is to be a father to his daughter. Unfortunately, Hall’s case has become more difficult; in many ways, it has defied standard military procedure.

Two days after applying for his discharge as a conscientious objector, Ft. Stewart officials confirmed that the Army would transfer Hall to Iraq for court martial. The decision blind-sided Hall, his family, and the members of IVAW who have been working to aid his release. Maggie Martin, president of IVAW’s Savanah chapter says, “We really can’t get any information while he’s locked up [in Liberty County Jail] and going to Iraq is an even larger obstacle.”

Hall’s greatest concern is whether he will receive a fair trial while in Iraq. The Army’s press release stated, "The jurisdiction transfer ensures a full and fair trial for both SPC Hall and the United States,” but by setting the trial in Iraq, the Army has restricted aid from Hall’s civilian attorney here in the United States, David Gespass, who knows Hall and his case thoroughly.

In a statement, Gespass, who is the president of the National Lawyers Guild, says, "Not just the Constitution, but the rules for court-martial, prohibit prosecutors from holding a court-martial in a combat zone as a pretext for depriving an accused of a public trial, counsel of his choice and necessary witnesses. Whatever the Army may claim, that is exactly what the Army is doing to Marc."

The choice to remove Hall from the United States, despite the fact that the crime he is allegedly charged with was committed here, also allows the Army to get him out of the public eye. His case has been building publicity, and if his trial were to take place in Georgia, IVAW members and supporters committed to protesting outside the courthouse.

Hall petitioned to stay in the United States, citing his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial, counsel of his choice, and to call witnesses in his favor, as well as the First Amendment right of the public and media to attend the trial and report on it. But on Feb. 17, U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore denied his petition because the case is classified under military jurisdiction.

At this point, it is not clear where Hall is located. The Army has not released his location and those trying to help him say they cannot reach him. In an interview with Truthout last Thursday, Gespass says, “This is bizarre. This morning I spoke with his JAG [Judge Advocate General] lawyer to find out when he leaves. Not only did he not know, but the prosecutor didn’t know because apparently Marc is such a national security threat that they can’t reveal anything about when he’s leaving. It’s beyond belief."

Marc Hall is just one of thousands of soldiers dealing with the anger and frustration of stop-loss. He is now sent to the place he was hoping to never see again to face trial for expressing the opinion he feels is widely held among stop-lossed soldiers. In a statement released by IVAW, Hall recalls that he openly talked about the song with his commander. “I explained that the song was neither a physical threat nor any threat whatsoever,” he says. “I told him it was just hip-hop."

Madeleine Dubus is a staff writer for Campus Progress and a writing fellow at The New School.

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