Relatives of murdered Afghans demand death for American sergeant [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Relatives of 16 Afghan civilians killed by a US soldier during a midnight rampage through two villages have expressed fury over a plea bargain that could see the perpetrator escape execution in return for confessing to the murders. They have called on US military prosecutors handling the trial of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales to imagine loosing their own loved ones to a gunman bent on murder and deaf to pleas of mercy.
"My last request from the world, all the countries, is that as a family of the victims we want our killer to be hanged," said Haji Baran, who lost his brother Mohammad Daud in the massacre, last March. "If someone entered your house and killed the children and old men and women of the family, what would your response be?"
Bales will enter guilty pleas to charges of premeditated murder on Wednesday, his attorney told the Associated Press. He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison, but a court will decide in September if he will have the possibility of parole. Any plea deal must be approved by both a judge and the commanding general.
There are currently six men on death row in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, where Bales is being held, but none were convicted for atrocities against foreign citizens and the US military has not executed a service member since 1961.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/02/afghanistan-murders-staff-sergeant-robert-bales
Plenty of Americans would also demand death for a murderer of a friend/relative. I wonder if Americans who support capital punishment realize what kind of company they're keeping?
= new reply since forum marked as read