November 7, 1995
Web posted at: 3:20 p.m. EST
From Correspondent May Lee and wire reports
OKINAWA, Japan (CNN) -- Despite guilty pleas from their sons Tuesday, the mothers of three U.S. servicemen accused of raping a 12-year-old girl on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa insist the young men are innocent. As the trial began, Navy Seaman Marcus Gill, 22, pleaded guilty to rape. Marine privates Rodrico Harp, 21, and Kendrick Ledet, 20, admitted to helping plan the September 4 attack but denied raping the girl. Harp also confessed to hitting the girl as she was abducted. In a written statement read in court the girl said, "I hope they will be kept in jail as long as they live."
"I believe my son is innocent," said Ledet's mother, Barbara Canon (120K AIFF sound or 120K WAV sound) of Waycross, Georgia. "I believe in my husband," said Demetrius Harp of Griffin, Georgia. (64K AIFF sound or 64K WAV sound) "I didn't raise no rapist," added Harp's mother, Daisy. "It takes courage to admit something that you know deep in your heart that you did not do," said Gill's mother, Esther, of Woodville, Texas. (152K AIFF sound or 152K WAV sound) Speaking at a news conference in Atlanta, Georgia, family members also complained they first heard about the arrests from reporters and not from the government or the military.
Civil rights groups and lawyers representing the families said the three servicemen were treated differently because they are African-Americans. They alleged that Gill, Harp and Ledet were coerced into giving statements to police and abandoned by the United States government. Rose Johnson of the Center for Democratic Renewal also accused the military of treating family members as outcasts. (More from Johnson, 104K AIFF sound or 104K WAV sound).
The prosecution maintains all three servicemen are guilty of rape. The case, which has enraged Okinawans, has increased questions about the future of the U.S. military presence in Japan and threatens to overshadow a November 20 Tokyo summit between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama. The next court session is scheduled for December 4. Unlike in American courts, Japanese trials do not occur in consecutive daily sessions; hearings are separated by weeks or even months.
According to prosecutors, Gill, Harp and Ledet snatched the girl off the street and forced her into a rented van. Harp and Ledet taped shut her eyes and mouth, bound her feet and hands and beat her face and stomach to keep her from struggling, prosecutors said. Authorities maintain that Gill and Harp then raped the girl at an isolated beach. Ledet tried and was unable, they said. Gill's attorney said pressure from military officials drove Gill to commit a crime. "He's stressed (and has) troubles with officers. He's so upset that he decided to kill somebody," Masanori Higa told CNN.
Harp's attorney, Mitsunobu Matsunaga, told CNN that rape and conspiracy are nearly the same in the eyes of a Japanese judge. Despite the plea of Harp and Ledet to the lesser charge of conspiracy, if convicted, all three men could be sentenced from three years to life in prison.
When the trial resumes, defense attorneys are expected to offer the victim compensation, which could lead to a reduction of sentence. But for the girl's family, money may mean little. In a statement read by prosecutors in court, the victim's father said, "If existing laws permitted, I wish to kill the three American soldiers."
The rape case has intensified debate about whether the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan are still needed. More than half of them are based on Okinawa at military facilities that cover nearly 20 percent the tropical island's land area. Last month about 85,000 Okinawans demonstrated against the bases in the biggest protest against their presence since the United States, which had occupied the island from World War II, handed back the island to Japan in 1972.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.