Abuse Private Awaits Sentence

Defense lawyers sought leniency for Pfc. Lynndie England at a hearing Tuesday to determine her punishment in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, with a psychologist testifying that the reservist was oxygen-deprived at birth, speech impaired and had trouble learning to read.

West Virginia school psychologist Dr. Thomas Denne — the first defense witness — said England's learning disabilities were identified when she was a kindergartner — and though she made progress in school, she continued needing special help.

"I knew I was going to know Lynndie England for the rest of my life," West Virginia school psychologist Dr. Thomas Denne said.

A military jury of five men and one woman was seated earlier Tuesday to make a sentencing recommendation for England, 22, who pleaded guilty Monday to seven counts of mistreating prisoners.

England accepted responsibility for the smiling, thumbs-up poses she struck for photographs taken at Abu Ghraib that made her the face of the prisoner abuse scandal.

The charges carry up to 11 years in prison. Prosecutors and the defense reached an agreement that caps the sentence at a lesser punishment; the length was not released. She will get the lesser of the military jury's sentence or the term agreed on in the plea bargain.

"The only move left for her now is to beg for mercy, which is what she is doing by taking full responsibility for her actions at that prison," said CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "And it even may be that the plea deal agreed to by prosecutors required her to take the blame the way she has."

Prosecutor Capt. Chris Graveline told jurors in opening statements that England and a half-dozen other soldiers in the 372nd Military Police Company took great pleasure in humiliating the prisoners. The prosecution rested its sentencing case without calling any witnesses.

Graveline said England and Pvt. Charles Graner Jr. - allegedly the ringleader of the abuses at Abu Ghraib - knew it was wrong to mistreat the detainees and take the photos, "but they did it anyway for their own amusement."

Graner was convicted in January on abuse charges and is serving a 10-year prison sentence. Four other Abu Ghraib guards and two low-level military intelligence officers have entered guilty pleas in connection with the scandal, with sentences ranging from no time to 8½ years. Spc. Sabrina Harman, a former Abu Ghraib guard, is scheduled to go to trial at Fort Hood next week.

Graner, now serving a 10-year sentence in a military prison, gave reporters a handwritten note Tuesday in which he said he was unhappy that England pleaded guilty this week to seven counts of mistreating Iraqi detainees at the Baghdad-area prison in late 2003.

"Knowing what happened in Iraq, it was very upsetting to see Lynn plead guilty to her charges," wrote Graner, who is scheduled to testify on England's behalf Wednesday at her sentencing hearing. "I would hope that by doing so she will have a better chance at a good sentence."

Graner hasn't given up his fight to persuade Americans that he and the other Abu Ghraib guards were just following orders from higher-ranking interrogators when they abused the detainees.

CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara reports that Graner is expected to be painted as a corrupting influence on England. He fathered a child with England but recently married Megan Ambuhl, another former guard.

In one of the photos, England held a leash looped around the neck of a hooded, naked prisoner. Another showed her next to nude prisoners stacked in a pyramid, while a third depicted England pointing at a prisoner's genitals as a cigarette dangled from her lips.

When asked by judge Col. James Pohl whether England knew right from wrong, Denne said she had a compliant personality and tended to listen to authority figures.

On Monday, England told Pohl that she initially resisted taking part in the abuse at the Baghdad prison, but that she succumbed to peer pressure.

"I had a choice, but I chose to do what my friends wanted me to," she said.