U.S. Sergeant Charged with 17 Counts of Murder in Afghan Killings

[steve2470]

Source: New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was charged on Friday with 17 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder in connection with a March 11 attack on Afghan civilians, American forces in Afghanistan said.

If convicted of premeditated murder, Sergeant Bales could face the death penalty, according to the announcement, which also stated that a minimum penalty on the charge is a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Afghan and American officials have said that Sergeant Bales, who is 38 and had been serving his fourth combat tour overseas, walked away from his remote base in southern Afghanistan and shot and stabbed members of several families in a nighttime ambush.

Afghan officials initially announced that 16 people were killed in the rampage; at least nine were children and some others were women. The Army has not suggested a motive. But the charges, which were announced in a six-paragraph statement Friday from United States forces, said Sergeant Bales was accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians. The statement did not include details of the crimes, and it did not account for the larger number of dead.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/us/staff-sgt-robert-bales-faces-murder-charges-in-afghan-killings.html

[provis99]

1. he'll get a 2 year suspended sentence and a General Discharge.

[obxhead]

2. If he wore a turban he would be charged with terrorism and shipped to GITMO.

I'm sick of the double standard.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. I suspect a defense based on mental defect or damage...and then a medical discharge

[gratuitous]

4. I hope the Afghan authorities throw the book at him

Wait; how did this become a military matter? It's not like he was carrying out military orders during the alleged rampage against civilians, was he? Shouldn't SSgt. Bales be tried by the civilian authorities?

I confess to being a bit bewildered, though, by all the due process folderol being indulged here. Surely enough people have agreed amongst themselves that SSgt. Bales is very, very bad, and that's been good enough for years to summarily execute a person. Is this an aberration on our part, or the dawning of an era of renewed respect for quaint old documents?

[PSPS]

5. Still not a word about the 14-19 who went with him.