Posted on 10/22/2014 9:33:16 AM PDT by GIdget2004
A federal jury has returned guilty verdicts for all four former Blackwater security guards charged in the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad.
The jury in Washington found Nicholas Slatten guilty of first-degree murder.
The three other three guards — Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard — were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter.
The four men were charged with a combined 33 counts in the shootings.
The jury had reached verdicts on only part of the charges, but Judge Royce Lamberth allowed them to announce the verdicts on Wednesday that they had reached.
The jury is expected to continue deliberating on the other counts.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Political Witchhunt.
Thus is what happens to you when your client is the US gummint.
Read, “Citizen Soldiers”, by Eric Prince.
Love the country, fear The State.
FedGov has never been our friend, at best a necessary annoyance. Today’s FedGov is our enemy.
Yup, 27 days of deliberations and whatever holdouts there were caved.
How ironic that this prosecution comes 7 years after the incident and after the bad guys have taken over most of Iraq as well as the chemical weapons Saddam left there!
All to these missions were guarding State Dept. people or other govt people and were supposed to be controlled and lead by State Dept Security people..where were they? Why weren’t they tried as well?
They shuld be given a strict, Strict talking to and then released.
If Obama has his way soon we won’t even have a country left to love.
Good luck hiring security contractors for future missions.
Oh, that’s right. Obama’s mission is to make sure there won’t BE any future missions.
Yup.
Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Nominated by Ronald Reagan on March 19, 1987, to a seat vacated by Barrington D. Parker, Sr.. Confirmed by the Senate on November 13, 1987, and received commission on November 16, 1987. Served as chief judge, 2008-2013. Assumed senior status on July 15, 2013.
Education:
University of Texas, B.A., 1965
University of Texas School of Law, LL.B., 1967
Professional Career:
U.S. Army captain, JAG Corps, 1967-1974
Assistant U.S. attorney, Civil Division, District of Columbia, 1974-1987; assistant division chief, 1977-1978; division chief, 1978-1987
That is an awfully long time to deliberate. In any event, applying civilian criminal justice to a gun battle in a war zone thousands of miles away with sketchy and contradictory evidence is a complete crock. I do not think we should have been so reliant upon mercenaries but we were. And IIRC, these men are all U.S. military veterans. The whole ‘thank for your service’ and veterans stand up so we can thank you and all that went right out the window. There was no allegation that these guys set out that day with the intention of killing innocent Iraqis. At worst, there was a great deal of confusion and a lack of fire control. At worst. And now one guy is facing a life sentence and the others 38 years minimum each. That’s an extra 30 years for using a firearm in the commission of a felony, which requires legal backflips given that they were hired and required to carry those weapons. Total sick joke in my opinion.
Yup, they convicted all defendants on the 30 year gun charge.
Incredibly the prosecution argues they never received any incoming fire despite several AK-47 rounds on the ground, bullet holes in the Blackwater vehicles, and one of those Blackwater vehicles being so badly damaged it had to be towed away!
Now you have nitwits proposing we send mercenaries to Iraq to fight ISIS.
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