Posted on 02/21/2009 12:33:41 PM PST by Gondring
Story Highlights
(CNN) -- A U.S. Army medic was sentenced Friday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering four detainees in Iraq, a U.S. military spokesman in Germany said.
Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr., 28, was convicted on two counts of murder and premeditated murder for his role in the 2007 Baghdad area killings.
Leahy was downgraded to private, his pay will be forfeited and he'll get a dishonorable discharge if he is ever released from prison. The sentence was handed down Friday night.
Two other soldiers also face courts-martial in the case, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Is this legitimate or are these guys being railroaded?
He murdered them in cold blood after they were bound and blindfolded. He admitted that he shot them in the head point blank. His defense was that he was "dazed from a lack of sleep and numb from being in a war zone for months."
Legit. He confessed to shooting prisoner in back of head.
From that ink:
“For those that don’t know, this is the way it works. If you meet the enemy on the field of battle, kill them, kill them in great numbers, kill them ALL, that’s called WAR. Once the battle is over, if there are survivors and they have surrendered to you, you are then responsible for their health, safety and all around well being. Those are the rules. A soldier, of ANY rank, can’t take the execution of prisoners upon himself. A bullet to the back of the head, point blank, along with the confession of Leahy, equates to execution, ie: MURDER, not the killing of an enemy combatant of the field of battle.
I don’t know what kind of military experience that Leahy’s lawyer had but his defense that Leahy was ‘dazed from a lack of sleep and numb from being in a war zone for months’ is one of the most lame excuses for a defense that I have ever heard. If those conditions were to become acceptable as justification for murder, every troop in theater would have a ready defense and an *out* for murdering any indigenous person they decided to kill.”
Anybody know the details of this case and if so tell us?
Anybody know the details of this case and if so tell us?
Then he deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life. I will assume it is at hard labor.
Leahy helped execute four prisoners. The problem was that prisoners were taken in the first place. For what possible reason? Prisoner exchange, lol? This tragic story underlines why it is necessary to kill and keep killing until no enemy combatants are still moving.
I wouldn’t convict him of murder. I guess I have different standards than the military.
Oh well, not the first time, probably not the last time either.
They were taken back for questioning. I suppose if you had precognition you could know they had no useful information, but Leahy’s precog wasn’t working because he was too tired.
If I was his lawyer I’d say he just decided to perform a 66th trimester abortion.
It’s just about as clearly murder as you can get.
Thanks. It appears the conviction is justified.
Who’s to say it wasn’t assisted suicide. He was a medic after all.
I wonder if any of his buddies were killed by the terrorists he ‘offed.
“This tragic story underlines why it is necessary to kill and keep killing until no enemy combatants are still moving.”
The instant they drop their weapons and raise their hands they are POWs and killing them is indefensible.
don’t wait until they drop their weapons
They are aware of the kind of weakness you display, and that's why they typically kept stashes of weapons hoarded in various places, from on house to the next. They would fire until their clips were empty and then run - - unarmed and therefore not "legitimate targets" - - to the next house where they would grab fresh weapons and commence firing again at pursuers.
In other words, you are clueless and full of horse manure. We should take exactly as many prsioners as they take.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.