E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe Taliban have called for revenge after a 38-year-old U.S. staff sergeant allegedly killed 16 Afghan civilians, nine of them children, and then burned many of the bodies. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The American soldier who is accused in a massacre of 16 villagers near Kandahar could face the death penalty, a military defense attorney said Monday, in one of the worst cases of alleged mass murder by a U.S. service member since the Vietnam War.
U.S. officials have said the soldier acted alone, leaving his base in southern Afghanistan and opening fire on sleeping families. After the massacre, he went back to his base and turned himself in, officials said.
The military will not identify the soldier until charges are filed, Pentagon spokesman William Speaks told msnbc.com Monday. The suspect remains in Afghanistan while the attack is being investigated.
According to military officials, the soldier will be tried within the military justice system, not turned over to Afghan authorities for trial, rebuffing a call from Afghan lawmakers to use their courts.
Report: US soldier who massacred 16 Afghans was from Stryker brigade
The suspect is based out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. He has been identified as a staff sergeant in the Stryker brigade who was taking part in a village stability operation in Afghanistan. He is a 38-year-old married father of two on his first deployment to Afghanistan after three previous deployments in Iraq.
"Based on what we’re hearing I suspect this will be prosecuted as a death penalty case," Philip Cave, a Washington-based military defense attorney told msnbc.com. "You’ve got felony murder, and certainly the number of victims and the circumstances -– very young children as victims –- I think there will be sufficient grounds to move forward as a death penalty case."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the death penalty is a consideration as the military moves to investigate and possibly put the soldier suspected in the mass killings on trial.
The recent killings have brought great sadness to Afghanistan, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called the killings 'unforgiveable.' NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
Before charges are filed, the soldier will likely undergo heavy psychological testing as part of the investigation, Cave said. Then an Article 32 investigation -- a thorough examination of the case with testimony from witnesses -- will be conducted before any court-martial proceedings. If there is a conviction at court-martial with the death penalty imposed and all appeals exhausted, the president of the United States himself would have to sign the death warrant for the soldier's execution.
Retired Army platoon Sgt. Jonn Lilyea, a Desert Storm veteran who writes the blog "This Ain’t Hell," told msnbc.com he expects the military to make an example out of the shooter as the case moves through the justice system.
Mourning, anger sweep Afghanistan after massacre
Still, Lilyea cautioned that people should not rush to blame the killings on the soldier’s deployments during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I’d wait to see if he really was in a position that would have affected him in this way," Lilyea said. "But I’m more concerned people will try to use this like they did after Vietnam with the My Lai massacre and taint all combat veterans of this generation as if they were like this one guy." Millions of Americans have served in combat, seen and done "terrible things," but have gone on to normal productive lives after their service, Lilyea pointed out.
Lt. William Calley was convicted of killing 22 villagers in My Lai village in 1968 in an incident that heightened U.S. opposition to the Vietnam War.
If the number of people slain in the attack is confirmed at 16, and the soldier is convicted, the mass killings would be the most of any convicted killer on the military’s death row, which currently has six inmates.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. He also faces a possible death penalty. His trial was scheduled to begin this month but was delayed until June to allow his defense more time to prepare.
John Bennett was the last U.S. soldier to be executed by the military. He was hanged in 1961 after being convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl.
Lethal injection is the current method of execution under military justice, according to military defense lawyer Cave.
Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an NBC News military analyst, talks to TODAY's Matt Lauer about what could have possibly driven a U.S. soldier to kill 16 civilians, including nine children, in Afghanistan.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
Leave a Comment:
soldier served his time in hell
let him go for therapy back in the USA
a national referendum would concur
Yeah, that's exactly the way the military works. They always hold a frigging national referendum to ask civvies what they think of something. roflmao
I'm not against the death penalty, but if I were, I wouldn't be in this case. If this guy doesn't deserve to die, then no one does. Killing inocent people including children for no apparent reason is unforgivable, and in addition to this terrible crime, he will probably be responsible for the death of some American in retaliation.
You'll be pleased to know that a couple of Americans were already killed in retaliation over the accidental burning of the defaced Korans. Keep your fingers crossed that enough other Americans are killed to make up for his act. You must be too young to remember Viet Nam and how so many young soldiers cracked under the horrors of that war; I'm sure you have never served.
Vietnam conflict had a draft. This murderer is a volunteer. He made the choice to enlist and re-enlist so he knew what he was getting into and is ultimately responsible for being in Afghanistan.
Yeah, why send our soldiers over to Afghanistan and risk being shot or killed when we have all these socialist liberal wackjobs that are willing to do that here?
The conduct's of war will continue with unimaginable horror precipitated by people's firmly grip on old pattern's of behaviour.
HE SHOULD BE FREE TO GO TO HIS FAMILY AND LIVE THE REST OF HIS LIFE,,I as guilty and condemed person in this world myself,if ever justice.
Yeah, that's exactly what I want. A guy who broke into someone's house shot 9 kids, 3 women and 4 men living next door to an orphanage, an elementary school, a hospital, a church. Let him move into your neighborhood, idjit. Maybe he'll skip your house when goes berserk the next time.
After 3 tours in Iraq where he suffered a serious head wound, and then Afghanistan? He is not responsible for what he did. Whoever sent him to Afghan is the one to be prosecuted. Four tours are too many for anybody!
He chose to join the Army and reenlist. He could have stayed home if he wanted to.
John O'Connor is a self righteous nutcase. Where do we get people as dumb as this?
Murder is murder. I think they should hand this jerk over to the Afghanistan government and allow their judicial system to deal with him. And I am tired of hearing about mental competency, period! Whether or not someone is insane does not change the fact they killed someone. In this case, regardless of insanity, he should be sentenced as severe as the law allows.
He has to be tried in a US military court because he has constitutional rights. The savages in Afghanistan will torture him to death. He deserves a fair trial and if he's sentenced to die, then it has to be carried out in a humane manner....Just remember that the people crying in the streets over there are the same people that were partying in the streets on 9/11.
It's not right to slaughter anyone....so shouldn't Major Nadal Hassan be executed for the Fort Hood murders he committed? A life taken is a life...be it women, children, or Soldiers....keep the score even! It's only fair!
Why don't you wait till he's put on trial which is set to begin in May? The military, evidently unlike a lot of folks on this blog, likes to do things in a certain order. They use the Uniform Code of Justice and they like to try people -before- they sentence them. Untie the knot in your panties and just let a military matter be handled by the military.
Considering the 101st soldier who killed fellow Americans in 2003 is still behind bars, chances are this guy will spend some time behind bars; perhaps even for life. Or be quietly paroled after five to ten years.
I'm sure the Afghans won't be pleased. Maybe we'll trade prisoners. Give us the rats that killed American soldiers, and we'll give you a confessed murderer. If you kill the American cruelly, then we hang our prisoners as francs-tiralleurs.
Another acceptable alternative might be the ICC. It may be European justice, but they don't do the death penalty, and would certainly be more fair than an Afghan court with an angry lynch mob hanging out outside.
off with his head!! Normally I am against death penalty as are most civilized people, but with this guy, I am willing to re-visit my position.
War is hell and the sooner some of you folks realize that fact the sooner you will understand what goes on. This sergeant was sent to thet hell-hole four times. The last three times we should have sent a senator. It's the same old story..the sergeants run the Army and the politicians take the credit. So I say, "take the credit for this one, you a$$holes."
Why don't we wait until the results of his psychiatric exam before throwing this man to the mob so he can be beheaded and his corpse dragged through the streets? I assume you will also all call for the trial and execution of the Afghanis who, while protesting this, shot another couple of Afghani's. Don't forget about the two Americans who were killed during a protest over the accidental burning of those defaced Korans ... in this country, when our flag is falling apart or somehow defaced, we consider burning it the honorable thing to do, and I believe the solder(s) who were involved in that probably thought they were acting with respect. Our president will, of course, use them as an example. When is he going to get it through his head that he is an American and should make sure that Americans are protected by OUR laws?
Military laws actually. If he's guilty of the charges he shattered military laws. He pays through military laws. You really don't want civvies paying for their BS through military laws, lady Then again maybe you think you do. lol
The guy requested a lawyer. He knew he committed a crime and was going to be arrested. He knew right from wrong and murdered people anyways.
Just bring everybody home. This guy will get what he deserves one way or another. Forget the people in Afghanistan, Iraq and all the crap hole places we keep trying to " Help ". You can't help a damn single one of those people. Bring everybody home and let those people over there do as they wish to each other.
If they want to kill and bomb each other then let them do it, why should we care. I realize you have some people over there who wouldn't do harm at all to anybody, but thats not our problem. The people hate Americans, The world hates Americans. If we bothered to keep our damn nose out of everybodies business and focus on our own screwed up country, maybe things would be different. But I suppose that's asking too much isn't it?
The death penalty seems a little harsh. All he did is murder a bunch of people. It's not like he committed a serious crime like having an emo haircut....
The US Government needs to shoot him in front of the Afgans and show them that this degenerate is a disgrace to humanity. I'm happy he will get the death penilty, but problem is this.. do you think this psycho never thought about pleading insanity? and also how long must we wait until this scum is put to death? If the US backs down from the death penilty with this scum, then it openly shows the world how corrupt it is and how we don't care. I don't buy this garbage of the guy has brain injury.. it's more like he has egoistic issues.. malignant narcisim and or psychopathy.
I'll be seriously surprised, though, if he does more time than shoplifting would get you.
Funny thing is though, if we had a million troops just like him in Afghanistan, the war would be over in a day and change (given the present population of Afghanistan)
They should do a Star Trek episode or movie where they show life in the Middle East in the 23rd century, could be a real positive glimpse of that region... like maybe in that episode that region is going through what in Europe was referred to as the Rennaisance.
Doesn't this sound exactly like a "black ops" type mission that you see on tv where one guy gets blamed and his entire life gets ruined by the government and secret officials. He is told his entire family will die slowly unless he play along with the accusations. He has no option but to play along because if he doesnt and goes public with it, it still can make him look bad because they can just say its part of his dementia. Then bang, death penalty, he's dead and no one would ever know the truth... Jus sayin yo,
Agent 85 -Out
Soldier accused in Afghan massacre could get death penalty and make sure the FT. Hood shooter receive's the death penalty before or at the same time. Sincerely David W. Moody
Easy problem...easy solution. There is something called the Uniform Code of Military Justice. As stated by the UCMJ
918. ART. 118. MURDER
Any person subject to this chapter whom without justification or excuse, unlawfully kills a human being, when he- -
(1) has a premeditated design to kill;
(2) intends to kill or inflict great bodily harm;
(3) is engaged in an act which is inherently dangerous to others and evinces a wanton disregard of human life; or
(4) is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of burglary, sodomy, rape, robbery, or aggravated arson;
is guilty of murder, and shall suffer such punishment as a court-martial may direct, except that if found guilty under clause (1) or (4), he shall suffer death or imprisonment for life as a court-martial may direct.
So as stated, easy problem, easy solution...let the court martial decide.
Excellent. Do you have the UCMJ for rape? Because that seems to be a problem also.
I have something for the Taliban.
Larry Francis US Veteran
Its not about what Afgans do,or dont do or what muslems do or dont do. Thats irrelevent. What this is about is what this man did. If he murdered innocent children,he probably should get the death penalty. He certainly "snapped" but the fact is,we dont determine whether you get off on murder by whether or not you "snapped". If you just lost your job,your wife left you and some guy cus you off in traffic ,and you respond by running his car off the road into a ditch,dragging him and bashing his skull in with a tire iron,yea,you were under stress. Yes,you snapped,and yes,you will be standing trial for murder. The same applies here,he may have "snapped' but unless there is some on going underlying mental illness that prevents him from either taking part in his own defense or prevents him from understanding right or wrong,hes going on trial. Stress,PTSD,or any other excuse you want does not cut it. (people with PTSD may have problems,but that on its own does not make them go around committing mass murder)
Is there "something wrong" with this guy? Is he "nuts"? Of course. Normal people don't commit mass murder of children. However,just as we don't give a pass for a mass murder who murders dozens of people in the civilian world,we don't give a pass for mass murder if your in the military.
Ive met some people who have been through a kind of hell Im sure this guy could not even imagine. I worked with a man who was a marine in WWII. He fought the Japanese at Iwo Jima. He was one of four men to survive in his unit. He would not have dreamed of harming innocent children. His experience scarred him for life,but it didnt turn him into a monster. I think that those that do turn into such monsters had problems to begin with.