Military justiceU.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilian could face death penalt
A U.S. soldier accused of a mass murder could face the death penalty if he is found guilty; Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of killing sixteen Afghan villagers and injuring another six in a shooting spree near a U.S. base in the Kandahar province last March
A U.S. soldier accused of a mass murder could face the death penalty if he is found guilty. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of killing sixteen Afghan villagers and injuring another six in a shooting spree near a U.S. base in the Kandahar province last March.
CNN reports that the military has referred the case to a court-martial authorized to consider capital punishment. Bales’s defense attorney, John Henry Browne, told CNN on Wednesday he found out about the decision to seek the death penalty through the media.
“That’s how much we seem to matter to the prosecutors and the general,” Browne said. “I am concerned this is a death penalty case, but I am not surprised. We’ve prepared him for this. He knows he’s being singled out.
“We understand that decision, but we think it’s totally irresponsible of the government and the Army, but we think the Army is attempting to escape responsibility for the decision to send Sgt. Bales to Afghanistan for his fourth deployment, knowing that he had (post-traumatic stress disorder) and a concussive head injury,” Browne added. “I think that the person who made the decision to send Sgt. Bales to the most dangerous area in Afghanistan in a small outpost is responsible for Sgt. Bales being in Afghanistan, and he should have never been there.”
Afghan authorities are asking for swift justice.
“He committed a mass killing crime, and we would like the court in the United States to implement justice and punish him according to the crime,” Ahmad Zia Syamak, a spokesman for Afghan president Hamid Karzai, told CNN last month.
Bales’s wife, Karilyn, said the accusations are “completely out of character of the man I know and admire,” and fears he will not receive a fair trial.
In a statement released Wednesday, Karilyn wrote, “I no longer know if a fair trial for Bob is possible, but it very much is my hope and I will have faith.”
Browne is hoping that the past will help Bales in his trial. The reality is almost every death case in the Army — almost every one — has been overturned on appeal, and there hasn’t been an execution in the Army since the early ’60s,” Browne said, referencing the 1961 hanging of Pvt. John Bennett.
