Sgt Robert Bales charged with 17 counts of murder in Afghanistan murder

Sgt. Robert Bales from the Army Staff was charged with 17 counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as six counts of assault Friday, in connection with a massacre in Afghanistan. The massacre was almost two weeks ago after Bales left his base in the morning and shot Afghan civilians in their beds as they were sleeping, including women and nine children. Bales has been kept at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Bales is 38-years-old from Bonney Lake, Washington and is also the father of two children. The decision to charge Bales with premeditated murder suggests that prosecutors plan to argue that he consciously conceived the killings. The maximum punishment for premeditated murder is death, dishonorable discharge from the armed forces and the mandatory minimum sentence is life imprisonment with a chance of parole. However, it was said that the death sentence was unlikely since it has not been used on an armed force in a long time.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/23/10830389-staff-sgt-robert-bales-charged-with-17-counts-of-murder-in-afghanistan-massacre

This is something that is going to have to be investigated thoroughly before they can come to a verdict and come up with the punishments. If he is found guilty of premeditated murder then I say he should be sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole. This is a terrible situation and he needs to be punished for what he did so people will know that this is something that is taken very seriously. When our armed forces kill civilians, it sends a bad message and can cause an outbreak in war and make things even worse than they already are. However, if he is not found guilty of premeditated murder, then he should be charged with a different sentence and should not be released from the armed forces because we do not need people like this in the Army Staff.