AND THIS IS WHAT WAR DOES TO PEOPLE…..
FROM THE LA TIMES….
U.S. soldier gets 10-year term in Iraqi’s death
The sniper, who was directed to kill the man by a superior, had faced a life sentence for the May 11 shooting.
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:02 PM PST, February 10, 2008
BAGHDAD — A U.S. sniper was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for fatally shooting an Iraqi who walked into the hide-out of the American’s five-man team.
Sgt. Evan Vela, who faced a maximum life sentence, was convicted of murder, making a false statement and planting a weapon in the May 11 killing. He also forfeited his U.S. Army pay and benefits and will receive a dishonorable discharge.
The verdict was the last of the three cases involving the killing of Iraqis by the sniper section of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment. Two others soldiers had been acquitted of murder in the May 11 shooting and in deaths the month before but received commuted sentences.
Vela’s lawyers contend that battalion leaders pressured the snipers to get more kills. “They were picked as the hand of the battalion to return the blow,” said Vela’s defense attorney James Culp, alluding to the high casualty rate in the battalion.
Culp argued that Vela, physically exhausted and sleep deprived, opened fire on instinct when his superior, Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, commanded him to shoot.
Hensley told the court Friday he had ordered Vela to kill the Iraqi because the detainee was making too much noise and might draw Sunni fighters to their hidden camp in Jufr Sakr, a region hostile to U.S. soldiers.
The prosecution insisted that Vela was responsible for the death no matter how tired he was or how weak his emotional state.
“What is a human life worth — that is what Sgt. Vela took,” prosecutor Maj. Charles Kuhfuhl told the court as it decided Vela’s sentencing. Vela played a key role in the trials of both Hensley and Pvt. Jorge G. Sandoval Jr. Vela broke down on the stand at Sandoval’s trial describing how Hensley had directed him to shoot the Iraqi, whom his lawyers described as his only sniper kill. His testimony largely cleared Sandoval.
At Hensley’s trial, Vela claimed he could not remember anything other than firing his pistol. Vela’s case will automatically receive a review from the Army’s appeals board, and he will be returned to detainment facilities in Kuwait, where he has been held since July. The U.S. military will decide later where to hold him.
The three sniper cases have raised serious questions about practices used in Iraq. Hearings revealed that the section planted weapons on bodies to shore up the legitimacy of their shootings and sought approval to start a baiting program in which they would shoot any Iraqi who picked up weapons they planted. It remains unclear if the program was ever activated.
ned.parker@latimes.com