AP Exclusive: Soldier to admit Afghan massacre

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-exclusive-soldier-admit-afghan-massacre

AP Exclusive: Soldier to admit Afghan massacre

 

SEATTLE (AP) — The Army staff sergeant charged with murdering 16 Afghan villagers during pre-dawn raids last year has agreed to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

 

John Henry Browne, an attorney for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, tells The Associated Press that Bales will enter the plea June 5 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle. The judge and commanding general must approve a plea deal.

 

A sentencing-phase trial will determine whether he is sentenced to life with or life without the possibility of parole. Browne says Bales will give his account of what happened the night of the rampage. The 39-year-old father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., left his remote southern Afghanistan outpost early on March 11, 2012, and attacked two nearby villages.

 

[Popeman38]

Why do we insist on allowing plea deals in these slam dunk cases? I hope he gives a full account and the judge dismisses the plea deal. There is nothing short of death this soldier deserves.

[sacase]

Couple differnet reasons why there is a plea deal.

 

1) is it such a slam dunk case? or are there other factors involved?

 

2) Is a life without parole sentence worth getting all of the facts about what happened and why? Or is it better to say screw what happened and why just put him to death. The why may be more important to the families than the death penaltiy.

 

Maybe he has information that may help the military prevent such future incidents from happening again.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/20/us-usa-afghanistan-trial-idUSBRE97J04120130820?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637

U.S. soldier in Afghan murder trial declines to withdraw guilty plea

 

A U.S. army soldier who in June admitted the slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians declined to withdraw his guilty plea in a military court on Monday.

 

U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales made his decision in advance of legal arguments set to begin Tuesday that will determine whether his life sentence will come with the possibility of parole.

 

"I'm just trying to do the right thing," he said in a hearing Monday to establish ground rules for the roughly week-long sentencing proceedings.

 

The judge, Army Colonel Jeffery Nance, asked Bales whether he wanted to withdraw the guilty plea in light of possible misinformation about the length of time before he could be eligible for parole.

 

Under a plea agreement that accompanied the plea, Bales will be spared the death penalty and could be eligible for parole after 20 years, less time already served and credit for good behavior.

Prosecutors also said they intended to play for jurors taped phone conversations between an incarcerated Bales and his wife Kari laughing about the charges leveled against him and discussing a possible book deal for her.

 

Bales' lawyers argued against playing just snippets of the conversation, saying that the recordings needed to be heard in context. As a result, Nance ruled that the full phone conversations, totaling over two hours, would be played.

 

The defense also objected to the prosecution calling as an expert witness an Afghan man who has interviewed survivors of the rampage and family members of victims.

 

The victims "are capable of speaking for themselves," said Emma Scanlan, Bales' civilian attorney.

 

[visionary]

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/20/sgt-bales-confrontedbyafghanmassacrevictim.html

Sgt. Robert Bales confronted by Afghan massacre victim

 

An Afghan farmer shot during a massacre in Kandahar Province last year took the witness stand Tuesday against the U.S. soldier who attacked his village, cursing him before breaking down and pleading with the prosecutor not to ask him any more questions.

 

Haji Mohammad Naim appeared in the courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, where a sentencing hearing began for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in the slayings of 16 civilians killed during pre-dawn raids on two villages in March 2012.

 

The hearing afforded some victims and relatives their first chance to confront Bales face-to-face.

 

With a thick gray beard, a turban and traditional Afghan dress, Haji Mohammad Naim testified in his native Pashto through an interpreter, speaking loudly and quickly and frequently waving a finger in the air. He pointed to where he was shot in the cheek and neck.

 

"This **** stood right in front of me!" he said. "I wanted to ask him, ‘What did I do? What have I done to you?’... And he shot me!"