Military court reverses suicide attempt conviction

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military’s highest court has reversed a discharged Marine’s criminal conviction for slitting his wrists in a case that raised questions about whether suicidal service members should be prosecuted.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled in a 3-2 decision released late Monday that a military judge shouldn’t have accepted Pvt. Lazzaric Caldwell’s guilty plea in 2010 to a charge of “wrongful self-injury without intent to avoid service” because his plea offer was technically insufficient. The opinion didn’t address the larger question of whether military suicide attempts should be prosecuted as crimes or considered noncriminal matters requiring treatment.