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Post by bobathon on May 7, 2019 6:30:43 GMT -5
He was convicted of murdering a prisoner under his control. Not just accused, convicted.
Trump pardoned him. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
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Post by minx on May 7, 2019 9:16:21 GMT -5
Oh Bob, the man he murdered was clearly a terrorist, so it doesn't count......
On a more serious note, this dude killed a guy who was suspected of planting an IED that exploded and killed most of the people in the vehicle that the murderer was travelling in at the time. Was he the best choice to guard this man, especially so close to the events that happened? I'm not condoning murder, but I can easily see that man snapping under the emotional stress of the situation and doing something he normally wouldn't have.
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Post by bobathon on May 7, 2019 9:37:05 GMT -5
He was convicted, regardless of the circumstances*. I think this bodes ill for our soldiers. Rules of engagement/Geneva no longer apply. In either direction.
*The view from other countries matters.
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Post by Dave's Not Here Man on May 7, 2019 9:59:12 GMT -5
Would you apply the same standard had he been sentenced to die for his crime?
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Post by bobathon on May 7, 2019 10:36:13 GMT -5
?
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Post by sipowitz86 on May 7, 2019 13:20:12 GMT -5
Would you apply the same standard had he been sentenced to die for his crime? You can commute a death sentence to a life sentence, or any other sentence. Clemency doesn't have to be an all or nothing guilty/absolved like a full pardon. |
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Post by Dave's Not Here Man on May 7, 2019 14:06:00 GMT -5
No dispute there, but I maintain there are at least as many similarities as differences, starting with being tried and convicted of murder. From there one of the two or three main objections to capital punishment (rightly so) is people wrongly convicted. Perhaps in this instance the soldier was wrongly convicted. Just saying even though my DA game ain't all that good.
PS war is hell and as someone once said, men who glorify it probably never fought in one. Or something to that effect.
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Post by minx on May 8, 2019 10:15:59 GMT -5
My understanding was that he was caught pretty much right after he killed the dude who was lying naked at the side of the road.
The rationale was that said dude lunged at him, and he was in fear of his life, which works in 99% of cases of police shooting unarmed civilians, if you think about it.
His problem was that he said he made the dude strip at gunpoint so he could interrogate him - clearly the threat he claimed wasn't that high (and the army has a higher standard of what a threat is vs the police)
I can see an excellent argument for temporary insanity based on the events that happened shortly before the incident (having watched his friends blown to bits had to have caused at least a little trauma), so I have no objections to him being released after serving a short sentence that included counseling.
I don't agree with a full pardon - what he did was wrong, and that needs to be acknowledged.
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Post by bobathon on May 8, 2019 10:19:40 GMT -5
He stripped, tortured, and murdered a prisoner entrusted to him. That's why he was convicted.
A pardon tells the world we're cool with our soldiers doing that. Another measure to diminish cooperation with us, and dim our international reputation. Iwonder who that helps...
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Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Jun 20, 2019 17:14:57 GMT -5
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