Soldier Guilty Of Negligent Homicide

(AP)  A military panel found a 101st Airborne soldier guilty of three counts of negligent homicide but not guilty of premeditated murder in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees.

Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard, 24, smiled as he hugged his defense lawyer and family members after the verdict was read. He faced up to life in prison had he been found guilty of premeditated murder.

The panel, which deliberated for four hours, also found Girouard guilty of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators and of conspiracy for trying to conceal the crime.

A negligent homicide charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. The sentencing portion of the trial begins Monday.

Girouard was accused of telling his soldiers to release detainees they captured during the May 9 raid near Samarra, Iraq, and then shoot them as they fled.

Girouard is the last and most senior soldier from the 101st Airborne Division to face trial in the killings.

Girouard testified during the trial that he lied to investigators about the slayings to protect his soldiers, and that he never told two of his soldiers, Spc. William Hunsaker and Pfc. Corey Clagett, to kill the detainees.

After he discovered the slayings, Girouard said, he decided to help them fake an attack, cutting Hunsaker and punching Clagett in the face, and lying to superiors by saying his soldiers shot the detainees in self-defense.

Defense attorney Anita Gorecki stressed in closing arguments Friday that Girouard did not plan the slayings and that prosecutors never provided a motive for Girouard to order the killing during the mission.

Prosecutors characterized Girouard as a liar who can't be trusted and that he only changed his story when the other soldiers agreed to make plea agreements.

Hunsaker, Clagett and another soldier, Spc. Juston Graber, have pleaded guilty to other charges. Hunsaker and Clagett testified that Girouard gave them the orders, while Graber testified that the soldiers were given an option to participate in the plan to kill the detainees.

Clagett and Hunsaker pleaded guilty to murder and each were sentenced to 18 years in prison. Graber pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for killing a wounded detainee and was sentenced to nine months.

[sshard]

Murder is murder. There are no good reasons for the killing of unarmed men, women or children, regardless of the situation. The case of Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard is tragic. At 24, Girouard will have to live for the rest of his life with whatever role he played in the execution of three Iraqi detainees. It is his medal of dishonor he will not be able to throw away.

Now I don%u2019t want to lessen or justified the crime. But there was an investigative series by The Hartford Courant, which detailed suicides, the lack of psychiatric help and the use of anti-depressants among American troops in Iraq. Troops that are on the front line fighting. I cannot help but wonder if any of this might have been a mitigating factor in various cases of American troop committing homicide.

I don%u2019t trust the official reports about the well being of American troops in Iraq, but to think the Pentagon is forcing American soldiers to continue to fight while suffering mental problems or on anti-depressants, is difficult for me to accept. Yet the Hartford series is convincing. If even a small part of it is true, soldiers like Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard should not be on trial alone. The officers, the Pentagon, who ever had knowledge or permitted troops with mental problems to operate in hostile fire zones, should be standing trial as well.

[sailormom04]

You want to end the war in Iraq? Send the politicians kids over to the front lines like they send OUR children. That war would be over before you could BLINK.
They have these men and women over there for years, then wonder why bad mistakes are made. Well%u2026hmmm, perhaps they are BURNT out!! Maybe, and of course I%u2019m just guessing here, the fact that everyday they wonder if the car that%u2019s moving past them is actually going to blow up. OR, some %u2018innocent civilian%u2019 isn%u2019t going to shoot them in the street.
I keep hearing how the war in Iraq isn%u2019t the same as Vietnam. Well no, it isn%u2019t%u2026at least during Vietnam, the men and women KNEW, ONE year and they were done.
Bush talks about the %u2018spilling of more American blood in Iraq%u2019 like he%u2019s talking about tea spilled on his rug. He shrugs it off, because he knows someone else has to deal with it.
Our people make bad calls, it%u2019s front news. Everyone talks about the horror or how bad these people are. But yet%u2026how often do we get more than a blurb about one of our men and women getting killed over there? It%u2019s not going to stop until the people stand up and say ENOUGH, bring our kids home!!
If these men can be tried for obstruction of justice for lying to investigators and of conspiracy for trying to conceal the crime, when will the politicians have THEIR day in court for the same????

[cbs_oliver]

Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard has been rewarded by the US military for obstructing the investigation of his murders while those who revealed it are being punished.

The US military has no honor anymore. It is rotten from the top to the bottom. They are a disgrace to America and the flag they are supposed to serve.

[feelfree1]

Please support the March 17, 2007 march on the Pentagon, demanding that the cowards, liars, and traitors who occupy that building abandon the illegal war of aggression against Iraq, cancel plans for an illegal war of aggression against Iran, and calling for the impeachment, sentencing, and imprisonment of the megalomaniacal Bush regime.

www.notinourname.net/content/view/16/1/

Don%u2019t forget the huge rallies planned for March 18th, 2007, in a city or town near you. Our rights must be constantly exercised, or they will wither and atrophy.

Please consider signing the following petition, calling for an immediate end to the U.S. inflicted debacle in Iraq.

www.ipetitions.com/petition/OutNow

For incomparable coverage of these, and other various worldwide actions, please visit:

www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml

[searingtruth]

"Yet the people that lied this man into this bogus war face no consequences whatsoever thanks to our unaccountable republicans and democrats who think they're above God himself. They did the real crime, this man does the time. What a farce...."
bildooreilly

Indeed. We now gleefully induct sociopaths into our military service so they may carry out Bush and his henchmens evil will. Just as in Germany between the decades of 1920 to 1940.
ST

"Twice we have fallen; towers by enemies without, and freedom by enemies within."
SearingTruth

"Never forsake humanity for inhumanity, despite all disguise."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[bildooreilly]

Yet the people that lied this man into this bogus war face no consequences whatsoever thanks to our unaccountable republicans and democrats who think they're above God himself. They did the real crime, this man does the time. What a farce....

[candojj1]

It's hard to believe that anyone could get 18 years for any of this. Who was representing them? Were they read their rights? Are there any rights? Or are the soldiers basically thrown in the brig and coerced into confession by some fascist type regime? What possible evidence could there be of anything like this being true other than he said, she said? And based on the story here there doesn't seem to be much defending of anyone. Just prosecuting. Is that the way it works?

[randalds]

Of course this is murder and of course he'll get a slap on the wrist. There is no excuse for letting a captive go just to shoot them down as they run. This is the kind of sh*it old southern sheriffs used to do and is not the kind of sh*it we want our troops doing. His "brother" soldiers are doing 18 years and he deserves nothing less. To be served in the same prison, cell block and cell of course. As*sholes like all of these give all vets a bad name and should be punished as severely as possible.