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U.S. soldier expected to plead guilty to killing Afghans in cold blood
Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales (L) and Judge Col. Jeffery R. Nance is seen in a courtroom sketch as he is arraigned on 16 counts of premeditated murder, six counts of attempted murder and seven of assault at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington January 17, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Peter Millett
By Eric M. Johnson
SEATTLE | Wed Jun 5, 2013 6:42am EDT
(Reuters) - A U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing 16 Afghan civilians in cold blood was due in court on Wednesday for a court-martial proceeding in which he is expected to plead guilty under a deal with military prosecutors to avoid the death penalty.
Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is accused of roaming off his Army post in the Afghan province of Kandahar last March and gunning down unarmed villagers, mostly women and children, in attacks on their family compounds.
The shootings marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on a rogue U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and further eroded strained U.S.-Afghan relations after more than a decade of conflict in that country.
Defense lawyer Emma Scanlan told Reuters last week that Bales had agreed to plead guilty during the hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to 16 counts of premeditated murder, as well as to charges of attempted murder and assault.
In return, military prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, Scanlan said. A court-martial jury will decide in a sentencing phase set for August whether a life term for Bales' crimes will include the possibility of parole, she said.
An Army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield, confirmed that Bales was expected to enter a plea at the hearing, but said he could not comment on defense assertions that a deal had been reached with prosecutors.
Any deal would be subject to final approval by the presiding judge, Army Colonel Jeffery Nance, who must first determine whether Bales has provided a complete account of the events, understands his plea and accepts the consequences of his acts.
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS
Army prosecutors have said Bales acted alone and with chilling premeditation when, armed with a pistol, a rifle and a grenade launcher, he left his post twice during the night to attack civilians. He is alleged to have returned to base in the middle of the rampage to tell a fellow soldier: "I just shot up some people."
Defense attorneys have argued that Bales, the father of two from Lake Tapps, Washington, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury even before his deployment to Afghanistan.
During a nine-day pre-trial hearing in November, witnesses testified that Bales had been angered by a bomb blast near his outpost that severed a fellow soldier's leg days before the shootings.
Victor Hansen, the vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said Bales' multiple deployments and diminished mental state raised "some extenuating and mitigating circumstances" that may have made both sides amenable to a plea deal that spares him the death penalty.
"The government saw there was some risk in their case," Hansen said. "From the defense standpoint, every capital litigator has one primary objective, which is to avoid death. They can say they succeeded in that objective even if he gets life without parole."
The plea deal outlined by Bales' lawyers was similar to an agreement struck at Lewis-McChord in April, when Army Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty to killing two fellow U.S. servicemen at a military counseling center in Iraq, near Baghdad's airport, in a 2009 shooting spree.
Russell was sentenced to life in prison without parole following an abbreviated court-martial stemming from one of the worst cases of violence by an American soldier against other U.S. troops.
(Writing by Steve Gorman; editing by Cynthia Johnston and Christopher Wilson)
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Washington (AFP) - A US soldier pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing 16 Afghan villagers, in exchange for escaping a death sentence over what he admitted was a "horrible" massacre.
In a plea deal worked out by his lawyers, Sergeant Robert Bales admitted 16 counts of murder over the massacre in southern Afghanistan in March last year, which further strained already tense US-Afghan ties.
Military judge Colonel Jeffery Nance accepted the pleas, and ruled that the 39-year-old will face a maximum of life behind bars without eligibility for parole. Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty.
Bales appeared a little choked up when responding to a judge's request before a packed courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle in Washington state to use his own words to say what he was guilty of.
"I formed the intent to kill and then did kill by shooting with a firearm and burning her," he said, repeating the phrase for each of the 16 murder counts he faces.
Asked why he had killed the villagers, he said: "Sir, as far as why, I've asked that question a million times since then. There's not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did."
Speaking in a steady voice once he had answered a few questions Bales recalled he had an M4 rifle and a 9mm pistol. "I don't know which firearm produced which injuries, but I used both weapons," he said.
He was asked if he remembered burning the bodies. "I remember there being a lantern in the room, I remember there being a fire after that situation... but to say I remember throwing the lantern on those people, I don't recall that."
Bales, who looks older than his 39 years, was flanked by his lawyers John Browne and Emma Scanlan in the courtroom at the base, where he has been held pending court martial proceedings.
Scanlan entered guilty pleas for all charges against him, which also include six of attempted murder and seven of assault. Seventeen of the 22 victims were women or children and almost all were shot in the head.
Bales pleaded not guilty to one count of wrongful endeavor to impede an investigation by damaging a laptop.
Bales allegedly left his base in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province on the night of March 11, 2012, to commit the killings. Nine of those killed were children. Bales allegedly set several of the bodies on fire.
He told how he came across a woman as he approached a compound. "I had a brief struggle with an older woman... upon completion of that struggle, I did form the intent to kill the people in that compound," he said.
Bales confirmed that he had tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. Asked what the effect of the drug was, he said: "Sir, it definitely increased my irritability and anger."
Browne announced last week that he had reached "an agreement with the military to take the death penalty off the table" if Bales would plead guilty.
Asked if Bales was sorry, Browne said: "Absolutely. And I think that will become clear as the process goes forward. He's very relieved that the death penalty is not on the table."
Bales did not apologize during a morning of testimony, before the judge accepted his pleas after a lunchtime break Wednesday.
A date of August 19 was set for a sentencing trial. Bales requested trial by 12-member jury including one-third enlisted officers.
