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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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January 4th,
2007 - Soldier Reaches Plea Deal in the Killing of 3 Iraqis |
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Soldier Reaches Plea Deal in
the Killing of 3 Iraqis By Paul von Zielbauer New York Times January 4, 2007 A soldier from the 101st
Airborne Division is scheduled to plead guilty next Tuesday to a reduced
charge for mercy killing in connection with the death of three unarmed Iraqi
men shot by American infantrymen last spring, according to lawyers for other
defendants in the case. The terms of the plea
arrangement will allow the soldier, Specialist Juston R. Graber, originally
charged with capital murder, to be convicted of aggravated assault and to
receive a nine-month prison sentence in exchange for his testifying against
three other members of his squad, the lawyers said. The three other soldiers,
members of the same company as Specialist Graber in the division’s Third
Brigade, still face courts-martial on premeditated-murder charges, making
them eligible for the death penalty or, barring that, life in prison. Army
prosecutors have accused them of carrying out an impromptu plan, following a
raid on a marshy island northwest of Baghdad, to kill the three Iraqis after
cutting off their plastic handcuffs and forcing them to run, still
blindfolded, from the squalid hut where they had been discovered. The two soldiers accused of firing
on the men as they fled - Specialist William B. Hunsaker and Pfc. Corey R.
Clagett - have said they shot in self-defense after the three broke free from
the thin “zip-tie” handcuffs and attacked them. A third soldier, Staff Sgt.
Raymond L. Girouard, the squad’s ranking member, is accused of devising the
plan to kill the men, then punching Private Clagett and cutting Specialist
Hunsaker to give the appearance that they had been attacked. None of these three
defendants have entered a formal pea. The guilty plea by
Specialist Graber, to be entered before an Army judge at Fort Campbell, Ky.,
and his testimony against the other soldiers will make gaining their
acquittal far more difficult than it would have been had all four kept a
unified legal front, lawyers for the three others said. “It changes the complexion
of the entire case and makes the case much stronger against Clagett, Hunsaker
and Girouard,” said Paul Bergrin, a lawyer for Private Clagett who said he
had not expected Specialist Graber to get “such an outstanding deal.” “It gives the government’s
case credibility and corroboration where they didn’t have it before,” Mr.
Bergrin added. “It requires us to rethink our strategy.” Specialist Graber’s two
military lawyers, Capt. Shaun Lister and Capt. Will Suddeth, did not reply to
e-mailed requests for comment or phone messages left with military officials
at Fort Hood, Tex., where both are based. Their client’s willingness to
testify for the prosecution, though, was bitter news to the three other
defendants. Michael Waddington, a lawyer
for Specialist Hunsaker, said Specialist Graber’s plea arrangement felt like
a betrayal, “especially when we’ve been disclosing our strategy” to his
lawyers for months. Specialist Graber’s legal team had joined with Mr.
Waddington, Mr. Bergrin and Capt. Ted Miller, a lawyer for Sergeant Girouard,
in a collaborative pact known as a joint defense agreement, which lawyers
often create if their clients face similar charges in the same incident. Defense lawyers said
Specialist Graber’s plea was not particularly surprising, given the disparity
between the evidence against him and the charges he had faced. According to the evidence,
Specialist Graber made a last-second decision to shoot the dying man after a
squad medic declared him beyond help and, according to sworn statements from
soldiers not charged in the case, after Sergeant Girouard said, “Put him out
of his misery.” But Army prosecutors
nonetheless charged Specialist Graber, 21, with premeditated murder, creating
an enormous incentive, defense lawyers for the three other soldiers said, for
him to plead guilty to a lesser charge that more closely fit the crime. The first court-martial in
the case will be Private Clagett’s, scheduled to begin Jan. 15 at Fort
Campbell, Mr. Bergrin said. Two other soldiers, Sgt. Leonel Lemus and Pfc.
Bradley Mason, are expected to testify for the prosecution that they heard
Sergeant Girouard conceive a plan to free the Iraqi men from their handcuffs
and have Private Clagett and Specialist Hunsaker kill them. But Mr. Bergrin said he
would call a powerful witness of his own: Col. Michael Steele, the brigade
commander, who, according to several soldiers’ sworn testimony, told some
soldiers to “kill all military-age males” they encountered during the raid,
on May 9. Colonel Steele’s lawyer, Lt.
Col. Raymond A. Jackson, said on Wednesday that Colonel Steele had never
given such an order, a denial putting him at odds with several soldiers under
his command. The Army has granted Colonel
Steele immunity to testify, Mr. Bergrin said, and once on the stand and under
oath, “he’s going to have to tell the truth.” Copyright 2007 The New York
Times Company External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04plea.html |