Army officer convicted in shooting deaths of 2 Afghans
By Ernesto Londoño
Published: August 1
Last summer, days into a new assignment leading a platoon in a volatile patch of southern Afghanistan, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army asked one of his soldiers to open fire on two Afghan men on motorcycles.
The fatal shots set in motion an extraordinary criminal investigation that unfolded largely unnoticed until a jury at Fort Bragg, N.C., this week heard dramatically different accounts of the choices that the officer, Clint Lorance, made that day.
On Thursday evening, jurors convicted the 28-year-old Lorance of murder, siding with prosecutors who portrayed his order as a reckless contravention of the rules of engagement. Lorance’s supporters say the real crime was the military’s decision to turn a war hero deployed in one of the most dangerous and remote corners of Afghanistan into a defendant.
“To put murder charges on him!” Lorance’s mother, Anna Lorance, protested in an interview before the verdict in the court-martial was announced. “In war, people die. When you’re in a heated combat zone, you have seconds to think.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/army-officer-convicted-in-shooting-deaths-of-2-afghans/2013/08/01/6ec9aca6-fae0-11e2-a369-d1954abcb7e3_story.html