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Thread: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales Sentenced in Afghan Slayings

  1. #21
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    Army says Bales should face death penalty for “despicable” crimes; Defense says too many questions are unanswered



    An Army prosecutor today argued that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales committed “the worst, most despicable crimes a human being can commit” in contending the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker soldier should face the death penalty for “murdering children in their own homes.”

    Maj. Rob Stelle’s argument concluded an eight-day evidence hearing for Bales, 39, who allegedly murdered 16 Afghan civilians and wounded six more in the early hours of March 11. The massacre involved the worst war crimes from the conflict in Afghanistan.

    Over the past week, the Army has called witnesses who said Bales was missing from his outpost – Village Stability Platform Belambay – on the night of the killings, and that when he returned, he wore a bloodied uniform with some kind of cape.

    They further said that Bales made confessions to his fellow soldiers at Belambay once the apprehended him, such as, “Some sick (stuff) is going to come out of this and I hope you guys don’t think less of me.”

    Furthermore, Afghan witnesses testified from Kandahar province during three nighttime sessions in which they described a single American soldier barging into their homes and shooting civilians.

    That testimony could be enough for Army investigating officer Col. Lee Deneke to recommend that Bales’ case proceed to a full court-martial.

    Stelle asked that Deneke recommend that the case move forward as a death-penalty court-martial. Murder carries a mandatory minimum life sentence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

    Bales’ defense team argued that the government has left too many questions unanswered to proceed, especially for Deneke to recommend a capital case to Army commanders at Lewis-McChord.

    For example, defense attorney Emma Scanlan said she only yesterday received an Army report describing the chemicals in Bales’ system after his arrest. They include steroids, alcohol and sleeping pills.

    She challenged the Army’s depiction of Bales as methodical in executing the killings and coherent after the massacre.

    “We don’t know what alcohol, steroids and sleeping aids do to a person who is lucid, coherent and responsive,” she said.

    Scanlan said Bales received some of those substances from Green Berets at Belambay. His infantry unit was attached to a team from the 7th Special Forces Group and isolated from its normal command structure from its Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade.

    “They are the commanders,” she said, referring to the Special Operators. “They are in charge, and they are terrible at it.”

    The defense attorney further questioned whether multiple soldiers could have been involved in the killings. She cited testimony from Afghan witnesses who have given varying accounts of the attacks over the past eight months, some describing multiple American soldiers in their villages.

    “There is nothing methodical as to what happened here,” she said.

    Scanlan also implied that Bales could have suffered from a head injury or post-traumatic stress disorder. She suggested that Bales passed through clinics at Madigan Army Medical Center that have come under scrutiny because of variances in their diagnoses. Scanlan would not say whether Bales ever received a diagnosis for either a traumatic brain injury or PTSD.

    “There are unanswered questions about mental state, about timeline, about who this man is,” she said.

    After the hearing, Bales’ sister-in-law read a statement for the family that called the past eight days of testimony “painful, even heartbreaking.”

    “We are not convinced the government has shown us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what happened that night,” Stephanie Tandberg said.

    Tandberg asked that people help ensure that Bales receives a fair trial by making contributions to his legal defense fund at www.helpsgtbales.com.

    Deneke said he expects to write his report on the hearing by this weekend. He is to submit it to a Lewis-McChord brigade commander. Lewis-McChord senior Army officer Lt. Gen. Robert Brown likely would be the authority on whether Bales should have the death penalty on the table if his case proceeds to a court-martial.

    Read more here: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/milit...#storylink=cpy
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  2. #22
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    Dude needs to fry! Killing 17 people is totally unnacceptable any way you look at it!

  3. #23
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    Death sought for Bales over Afghan killings


    TACOMA (Washington) Military prosecutors said on Monday they would seek the death penalty for a US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers when he ventured out of his camp on two revenge-fueled drunken forays earlier this year.

    The lead prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Morse, told a preliminary hearing he would present evidence proving ‘chilling premeditation’ on the part of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.

    Morse said he was submitting a “capital referral” in the case, requesting that Bales be executed if convicted.

    The hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state was expected to last two weeks and include witness testimony from Afghanistan carried by live video, including testimony from villagers and Afghan soldiers.

    At the end, military commanders will decide whether there is sufficient evidence for Bales to stand trial by court-martial.

    Bales, dressed in camouflage Army fatigues with his head shaven, embraced his wife in court before the hearing began. He then sat silently watching the proceedings from the defence table as Morse summarised the prosecution’s account of the events of March 10-11.

    According to Morse, Bales had been drinking with two fellow soldiers before he left his base, Camp Belambay, and went to a village where he committed the first killings.

    Morse said Bales then returned to the camp and told a drinking buddy, Sergeant Jason McLaughlin, “I just shot up some people,” before leaving for a second village and killing more people. Morse called Bales’ actions “deliberate, methodical.”

    “He was lucid, he was coherent, he was responsive,” Morse said, adding that Bales had admitted to the crimes.

    One of the three, Corporal David Godwin, testified that Bales kept repeating the words, “I thought I was doing the right thing,” and “It’s bad. It’s bad. It’s really bad.” Several witnesses said Bales’ trousers were spattered with blood. One said he had a “ghost-like look.”

    Godwin recounted that he, Bales and McLaughlin had been drinking alcohol together in McLaughlin’s room while watching the Hollywood film Man on Fire, which stars Denzel Washington as a former assassin bent on revenge.

    Bales, who was not expected to testify during the so-called Article 32 hearing, had been confined at a military prison in Kansas from March until he was moved in October to Lewis-McChord, where his infantry regiment was based.

    John Henry Browne, Bales’ civilian lawyer, has suggested Bales may not have acted alone and may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Bales’ wife, Kari, told a local NBC affiliate, KING5-TV, before the hearing she believed he was innocent, as a massacre of innocent civilians was “not something my husband would have done ... not the Bob that I know.”
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  4. #24
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    Army to seek death penalty in killings of 16 Afghans

    The U.S. Army said Wednesday it will seek the death penalty against the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a predawn rampage in March, a decision his lawyer called "totally irresponsible."

    The announcement followed a pretrial hearing last month for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 39, who faces premeditated murder and other charges in the attack on two villages in southern Afghanistan.

    The slayings drew such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.

    Prosecutors said Bales left his remote southern Afghanistan base early on March 11, attacked one village and returned to the base, then slipped away again to attack another nearby compound. Of the 16 people killed, nine were children.

    No date has been set for Bales' court-martial, which will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle.

    His civilian lawyer, John Henry Browne, said he met with Army officials last week to argue that his client shouldn't face the possibility of the death penalty, given that Bales was serving his fourth deployment in a war zone when the killings occurred.

    "The Army is not taking responsibility for Sgt. Bales and other soldiers that the Army knowingly sends into combat situations with diagnosed PTSD, concussive head injuries and other injuries," Browne said. "The Army is trying to take the focus off the failure of its decisions, and the failure of the war itself, and making Sgt. Bales out to be a rogue soldier."

    Bales' wife, Kari Bales, said in a statement Wednesday that she and their children have been enjoying their weekend visits with Bales at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and she hopes he receives an impartial trial.

    "I no longer know if a fair trial for Bob is possible, but it very much is my hope, and I will have faith," she said.

    Bales' defense team has said the government's case is incomplete, and outside experts have said a key issue going forward will be to determine if Bales suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bales grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood, Ohio, and served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    During last month's preliminary hearing, prosecutors built a strong eyewitness case against the veteran soldier, with troops recounting how they saw Bales return to the base alone, covered in blood. One soldier testified that Bales woke him up in the middle of the night, saying he had just shot people at one village and that he was heading out again to attack another. The soldier said he didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep.

    http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/...ac=fo.military
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #25
    Senior Member Member chris35721's Avatar
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    these actions by this soldier make my sons last 4 months more of a living hell than he was already in. i thank god everyday he made it out of there alive.

  6. #26
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    Soldier who faces potential death penalty in Afghanistan massacre to be arraigned Thursday

    The Army says the staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers during nighttime raids last year is due to be arraigned Thursday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
    Staff Sgt. Robert Bales could face the death penalty if convicted in the massacre early on March 11. He faces premeditated murder and other charges in the attack on two villages in southern Afghanistan.
    Prosecutors say Bales left his remote base, attacked one village and then returned to the base before slipping away again to attack another nearby compound. Of the 16 people killed, nine were children.
    Bales, an Ohio native who later moved to Washington state, is being detained at Lewis-McChord.

    Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/15...#ixzz2I4vhj36M

  7. #27
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    Bales defers entering plea in Afghan massacre case

    Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 villagers in Afghanistan, deferred entering a plea when he appeared Thursday morning for his arraignment at a hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.

    A veteran of four tours in Afghanistan, Bales, 39, faces 16 murder charges, and other counts including attempted murder, assault and drug and alcohol charges. The proceeding is the equivalent of an arraignment and allows the military to move forward on a court-martial.

    Attorneys for Bales have said he is not guilty of the charges.

    During a pretrial hearing in November, witnesses testified that Bales had been angered by a bomb blast near his outpost that severed a fellow soldier’s leg. That could open the door to a defense based on mental trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder or some other form of impairment.

    The Army is expected to seek to bar Bales from using any sort of mental health defense at the court-martial, according to documents reviewed by the Associated Press. In order to seek the death penalty, the prosecution must establish that Bales is competent and did not act out of mental illness.

    Officials have refused to make some documents about the case available to reporters. That has left civilian defense attorneys as the only source for records on the case, the AP noted.

    In the documents reviewed by the wire service, military prosecutors argue that Bales should not be allowed to have any expert witnesses testify about what effect his mental health might have had on his guilt. Nor do they want any expert to testify during the penalty phase of the trial, should it get that far, as to whether any history of traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder should spare him the death penalty.

    The military argues that Bales’ lawyers have refused to allow him to participate in a review by a board to determine his sanity.

    “An accused simply cannot be allowed to claim a lack of mental responsibility through the introduction of expert testimony from his own doctors, while at the same time leaving the government with no ability to overcome its burden of proof because its doctors have been precluded from conducting any examination of the very matters in dispute,” Maj. Robert Stelle wrote in a motion Jan. 3.

    Alternatively, Stelle wrote, the judge should order Bales to immediately undergo the sanity review.

    Bales' attorneys have refused to let him take part in the sanity board because the Army would not let him have a lawyer present for the examination, would not record the examination and would not appoint a neuropsychologist expert in traumatic brain injuries to the board, according to the documents.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...,1099135.story
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #28
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    Court martial set for September for soldier accused of killing 16 in Afghanistan

    A military judge has scheduled a Sept. 3 court martial for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the U.S. soldier accused of massacring 16 Afghan villagers during nighttime raids last year, his lawyer said Thursday.

    Civilian attorney John Henry Browne told The Associated Press that the date is too soon to give the defense team time to prepare, and they will ask the judge to reconsider. Browne had sought a trial in mid-2014.

    “It’s a very unrealistic trial date for us,” Browne said.

    Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. He slipped away from his base in southern Afghanistan early March 11 to attack two nearby villages and returned covered in blood, prosecutors say. Most of the victims were women and children.

    The Army is seeking the death penalty. Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, where Bales was based and where he is being held, said he could not immediately confirm the trial date.

    Browne said the judge has scheduled questioning of potential jurors to begin Aug. 19, and dates for pre-trial motions to be filed and argued April 23-26 and June 4-7.

    Browne and co-counsel Emma Scanlan have each traveled to Afghanistan to investigate the case, but Browne insists another trip by at least one member of the defense team would be necessary before the trial.

    One hurdle to that is financial, he said. He has repeatedly noted that his firm is working for Bales for free — Bales also has appointed military defense counsel.

    If Browne can’t raise the money for another trip to Afghanistan, he said, his firm might have to withdraw from the case — which, he noted, could set the trial back more than a year.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...ba8_story.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #29
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    Bales to undergo sanity review in massacre case

    A U.S. soldier charged with killing 16 Afghan civilians is expected to undergo a court-ordered review of his sanity beginning this weekend, after the military judge overseeing the case agreed that the results would not automatically be shared with prosecutors, his lawyers said Wednesday.

    The review of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales by Army doctors will start Sunday and could last three to seven days, said attorney John Henry Browne. Such reviews are aimed at discerning a defendant’s mental state at the time of the crime and competency to stand trial.

    The Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., is accused of murdering Afghan villagers, mostly women and children, during pre-dawn raids on March 11, 2011. Bales, who was on his fourth combat deployment, slipped away from his base in southern Afghanistan to attack two nearby villages and returned soaked in blood, prosecutors say.

    He has not entered a plea. The Army is seeking the death penalty.

    Bales’ lawyers previously objected to the sanity review because the Army would not allow the proceedings to be recorded, would not let Bales have a lawyer present, and would not agree to appoint a neuropsychologist expert in traumatic brain injuries to be involved.

    They also objected because the “short-form” results of such exams, with answers about his mental health diagnosis and mental state at the time of the attack, often are provided automatically to military prosecutors, with the rest of the results being turned over only if the accused raises mental health as a defense to the charges.

    However, Bales’ attorneys argued that even letting prosecutors have the short form would give them information based on compelled statements from the defendant, in possible violation of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

    At a hearing in January, the judge ordered the sanity review to go forward. His written order later made clear that the prosecutors would not receive the short-form results, said Emma Scanlan, another lawyer for Bales.

    “They’re not going to get that information, which is why our client is agreeing to participate,” Scanlan said.

    Browne has previously said the defense team has obtained medical records from Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state indicating Bales had suffered from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, but he described those records as incomplete.

    Bales’ mental health has been expected to be a key part of his defense.

    Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, an Army spokesman at the base, confirmed that the sanity review will begin Sunday.

    Last week, six Afghan civilians who are expected to testify at Bales’ trial traveled to Lewis-McChord. The purpose of the trip was to familiarize them with the process and logistics for the court martial, Dangerfield said.

    Among the visitors was Haji Mohammad Naim, who was shot and wounded during the massacre, said Lela Ahmadzai, an Afghan filmmaker who said she spoke with relatives of the victims recently.

    Ahmadzai, who lives in Germany, marked this week’s anniversary of the killings by releasing a web documentary about the attack, “Silent Night: The Kandahar Massacre,” including dramatic interviews with some of the victims recorded in October.

    “It’s really hard to hear about it from the kids’ perspective,” she said. “I wanted to show them, to give them a space to talk. They don’t usually get that.”

    http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news...e-case-031313/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #30
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    Defense seeks new expert in Afghan killings case



    Attorneys for the U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians during a 2012 rampage have asked that a new psychiatric expert be appointed in the case.

    Emma Scanlan, an attorney for Robert Bales, made the request during a hearing Tuesday. Citing attorney-client privilege, Scanlan did not say why the request was made.

    Outside experts believe a key issue going forward will be to determine if Bales suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bales served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    A ruling on the defense team's request will be made later. At Tuesday's hearing attorneys also discussed which witnesses might be allowed to testify on Bales' behalf, should the case reach a sentencing phase.

    Bales is to be court-martialed on premeditated murder and other charges in the attack on two villages in southern Afghanistan.

    The Ohio native and father of two is accused of slaying mostly women and children during pre-dawn raids on March 11, 2012.

    Bales, 39, has not entered a plea. The Army is seeking the death penalty. The U.S. military has not executed anyone since 1961.

    The slayings last year drew such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.

    Bales' defense team has said the government's case is incomplete.

    During a previous preliminary hearing, prosecutors built a strong eyewitness case against the veteran soldier, with troops recounting how they saw Bales return to the base alone, covered in blood. One soldier testified that Bales woke him up in the middle of the night, saying he had just shot people at one village and that he was heading out again to attack another. The soldier said he didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep.

    Afghan witnesses questioned via a video link from a forward operating base near Kandahar City described the horror of that night. A teenage boy recalled how the gunman kept firing as youths scrambled, yelling: "We are children! We are children!"

    An Army criminal investigations command special agent testified earlier that Bales tested positive for steroids three days after the killings, and other soldiers testified that Bales had been drinking the evening of the massacre.

    http://magicvalley.com/news/national...cb514c8d5.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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