Michelle Commiskey
Feb. 20, 2009
1:02pm
A US Army medic has been found guilty of murder. Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. has been convicted for his involvement in the execution-style murders of four Iraqi detainees. The four men, who were bound and blindfolded, were shot in the back of the head during the spring of 2007. The bodies were later dumped in a Baghdad canal.
Sgt. Leahy pled not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, and obstruction of justice. This was not the first time Leahy faced charges. In January of 2007, he was similarly charged in a separate incident. Although, he did admit “to military investigators that he shot one of the prisoners point-blank in the back of the head with a 9mm pistol”.
Leahy did not act alone during the murder of the four Iraqis. Apparently Master Sgt. John Hatley, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo, and Sgt. Charles Quigley also had a hand in the deed. Both Mayo and Hatley are facing the same charges as Leahy. Quigley only faces one charge of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.
Just because you are a soldier and in a war does not mean you can commit murder all willy-nilly. The four Iraqis had already been captured and were the military’s prisoners. They had been taken in for processing and questioning after and attack on the unit, yet there was not substantial evidence that they had any part in it. These soldiers do have a duty to protect their brothers, but just because they are given a gun and told to shoot (identified targets) does not mean they are free from the terms of the United States justice system. For all we know, those four dead Iraqis could have been entirely innocent. If not, at least let them die with some dignity after being tried in a court of law just like everyone else.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090220/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_us_iraq_deaths
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