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| FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2011, file photo provided by the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales participates in an exercise at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Bales, charged with slaughtering 16 villagers during one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war, has agreed to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty, his attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday May 29, 2013. |
SEATTLE (AP)
-- The Army staff sergeant charged with slaughtering 16 villagers in one
of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war will plead guilty to
avoid the death penalty in a deal that requires him to recount the
horrific attack for the first time, his attorney told The Associated
Press on Wednesday.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales
was "crazed" and "broken" when he slipped away from his remote southern
Afghanistan outpost and attacked mud-walled compounds in two slumbering
villages nearby, lawyer John Henry Browne said.
But
his client's mental state didn't rise to the level of a legal insanity
defense, Browne said, and Bales will plead guilty next week.
The
outcome of the case carries high stakes. The Army had been trying to
have Bales executed, and Afghan villagers have demanded it. In
interviews with the AP in Kandahar last month, relatives of the victims
became outraged at the notion Bales might escape the death penalty.
"For
this one thing, we would kill 100 American soldiers," vowed Mohammed
Wazir, who had 11 family members killed that night, including his mother
and 2-year-old daughter.
"A prison sentence
doesn't mean anything," said Said Jan, whose wife and three other
relatives died. "I know we have no power now. But I will become
stronger, and if he does not hang, I will have my revenge."
Any
plea deal must be approved by the judge as well as the commanding
general at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Bales is being held. A plea
hearing is set for June 5, said Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, an Army
spokesman. He said he could not immediately provide other details.
"The
judge will be asking questions of Sgt. Bales about what he did, what he
remembers and his state of mind," said Browne, who told the AP the
commanding general has already approved the deal. "The deal that has
been worked out ... is they take the death penalty off the table, and he
pleads as charged, pretty much."
A
sentencing-phase trial set for September will determine whether Bales is
sentenced to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.
Browne
previously indicated Bales remembered little from the night of the
massacre, and he said that was true in the early days after the attack.
But as further details and records emerged, Bales began to remember what
he did, the lawyer said, and he will admit to "very specific facts"
about the shootings.
Browne would not elaborate on what his client will tell the judge.
Bales,
an Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., had been
drinking contraband alcohol, snorting Valium that was provided to him by
another soldier, and had been taking steroids before the attack.
Testimony
at a hearing last fall established that Bales returned to his base
between attacking the villages, woke up a fellow soldier and confessed.
The soldier didn't believe him and went back to sleep, and Bales left
again to continue the slaughter.
Most of the
victims were women and children, and some of the bodies were piled and
burned. The slayings drew such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily
halted combat operations in Afghanistan. It was three weeks before
American investigators could reach the crime scenes.
Browne
said his client, who was on his fourth combat deployment, was suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury. He
continued to blame the Army for sending him back to war in the first
place.
"He's broken, and we broke him," Browne said.
The
massacre raised questions about the toll multiple deployments were
taking on American troops. For that reason, many legal experts believed
it that it was unlikely that he would receive the death penalty, as Army
prosecutors were seeking. The military justice system hasn't executed
anyone since 1961.
The defense team, including
military lawyers assigned to Bales as well as Browne's co-counsel, Emma
Scanlan, eventually determined after having Bales examined by
psychiatrists that he would not be able to prove any claim of insanity
or diminished capacity at the time of the attack, Browne said.
"His
mental state does not rise to the level of a legal insanity defense,"
Browne said. "But his state of mind will be very important at the trial
in September. We'll talk about his mental capacities or lack thereof,
and other factors that were important to his state of mind."
Browne
acknowledged the plea deal could inflame tensions in Afghanistan and
said he was disappointed the case has not done more to focus public
opinion on the war.
"It's a very delicate
situation. I am concerned there could be a backlash," he said. "My
personal goal is to save Bob from the death penalty. Getting the public
to pay more attention to the war is secondary to what I have to do."
