Abu Ghraib Sentence: Six Months

Sabrina Harman Was Convicted On 6 Counts Of Mistreating Inmates

(AP)  "They were all acting together for their own amusement," Capt. Chris Graveline said. "There was no justification for what they did that night."

Graveline said the group took pictures of what they were doing "so they could remember that night, so they could laugh again at these men. ... There's nothing funny about what happened at Abu Ghraib."

Defense lawyer Frank Spinner said Harman was a novice soldier who received virtually no training before going to work at the chaotic and overcrowded prison as part of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company.

"Shame on the Army for putting an ill-equipped, ill-trained junior specialist in a position where she had to challenge her (enlisted) leadership to do the right thing," he said. "This is not one of the Army's finest moments."

The final witness was Kelly Bryant, Harman's roommate in Virginia, who read part of a letter Harman wrote home in late October 2003.

In the letter, Harman said she took pictures of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib because she was opposed to the treatment and wanted to document the wrongdoing.

"At first I thought it was funny, but these people are going too far," Harman wrote. "Kelly, it's awful. I thought I could handle anything, but I was wrong."

Harman wrote that her initial amusement at how detainees were sexually mistreated gave way to the realization that her fellow soldiers were engaged in illegal activity.

"It hit me it was a form of molestation — you can't do that," she wrote. "What if that was me in their shoes?"

Six co-defendants have made plea bargains. The reputed ringleader, Pvt. Charles Graner Jr., was convicted in January and is now serving a 10-year sentence in an Army prison.

Pfc. Lynndie England, the most recognizable Abu Ghraib defendant, also reached a plea deal, but it was thrown out after Graner's testimony contradicted England's assertion that she knew her actions were wrong.