Jurors in the long-running trial of Blackwater security guards charged with killing civilians during the Iraq war have indicated they may be close to reaching a partial verdict, according to new notes exchanged with the judge.
The notorious massacre in 2007 left 17 people dead and 20 seriously injured after guards working for the US State Department fired heavy machine guns and grenade launchers from their armoured convoy in the mistaken belief it was under attack by insurgents.
For 26 days, as of Tuesday, the jury in Washington has been deliberating over 33 separate counts ranging from a charge of first degree murder in the case of one guard through to several charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in the case of three others.
But on Tuesday afternoon, their mammoth deliberations appeared to be drawing to a conclusion after the foreman wrote a note to the judge, Royce Lamberth, asking whether they could return a partial verdict on the charges where they had reached a unanimous decision and what would happen if they were in deadlock on others.
They also asked in two consecutive notes on Monday and Tuesday detailed questions about separate weapons charges that seem to indicate they are leaning towards sticking with voluntary manslaughter charges, rather than reducing them to involuntary manslaughter as had previously been suspected.
A large sentencing disparity between the two crimes – ranging from 15 plus years for voluntary to less than half that for involuntary – is compounded by the fact that the jury was instructed that a separate charge of using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence could not be considered unless they were sure the manslaughter was voluntary.
An earlier exchange of notes on the subject had alarmed prosecutors because it implied the defendants could be convicted on the lesser charge but serve just a few years in a prison without any supplemental weapons charges.
On Tuesday, the prosecution team was in high spirits during a brief hearing to discuss the judge’s latest instructions, as it relished questions from the jury that were predicated on the assumption it would convict at least one guard for voluntary manslaughter.
“We have read (over and over) the jury instructions and need further clarification of what exactly is a ‘destructive device’,” wrote the foreman, referring to detailed distinctions made in the weapons charge between machine guns, sniper rifles and grenade launchers allegedly used by the Blackwater convoy.
After consulting with lawyers from both sides, the judge instructed them that the government was only suggesting the grenade launchers may count as destructive devices, but need only prove that any weapon was used to make the charge stick.
“If we come to a deadlock what do we do?” the jury added in the second of two notes on Tuesday. “If we are unanimous on counts, what do we do, can we present them now?”
Attempts to prosecute the guards have previously foundered due to a series of legal mistakes by US officials and the case had attracted widespread attention in Iraq as a symbol of apparent American immunity.
During the trial’s emotional closing arguments, jurors were told of the “shocking amount of death, injury and destruction” that saw “innocent men, women and children mowed down” as they went about their daily lives in downtown Baghdad.
The federal prosecutor Anthony Asuncion said: “These men took something that did not belong to them; the lives of 14 human beings … they were turned into bloody, bullet-riddled corpses at the hands of these men.”
“It must have seemed like the apocalypse was here,” said Asuncion in his closing argument, as he described how many were shot in the back, at long range, or blown up by powerful grenades used by the US contractors.
The notorious massacre in 2007 left 17 people dead and 20 seriously injured after guards working for the US State Department fired heavy machine guns and grenade launchers from their armoured convoy in the mistaken belief it was under attack by insurgents.
For 26 days, as of Tuesday, the jury in Washington has been deliberating over 33 separate counts ranging from a charge of first degree murder in the case of one guard through to several charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in the case of three others.
But on Tuesday afternoon, their mammoth deliberations appeared to be drawing to a conclusion after the foreman wrote a note to the judge, Royce Lamberth, asking whether they could return a partial verdict on the charges where they had reached a unanimous decision and what would happen if they were in deadlock on others.
They also asked in two consecutive notes on Monday and Tuesday detailed questions about separate weapons charges that seem to indicate they are leaning towards sticking with voluntary manslaughter charges, rather than reducing them to involuntary manslaughter as had previously been suspected.
A large sentencing disparity between the two crimes – ranging from 15 plus years for voluntary to less than half that for involuntary – is compounded by the fact that the jury was instructed that a separate charge of using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence could not be considered unless they were sure the manslaughter was voluntary.
An earlier exchange of notes on the subject had alarmed prosecutors because it implied the defendants could be convicted on the lesser charge but serve just a few years in a prison without any supplemental weapons charges.
On Tuesday, the prosecution team was in high spirits during a brief hearing to discuss the judge’s latest instructions, as it relished questions from the jury that were predicated on the assumption it would convict at least one guard for voluntary manslaughter.
“We have read (over and over) the jury instructions and need further clarification of what exactly is a ‘destructive device’,” wrote the foreman, referring to detailed distinctions made in the weapons charge between machine guns, sniper rifles and grenade launchers allegedly used by the Blackwater convoy.
After consulting with lawyers from both sides, the judge instructed them that the government was only suggesting the grenade launchers may count as destructive devices, but need only prove that any weapon was used to make the charge stick.
“If we come to a deadlock what do we do?” the jury added in the second of two notes on Tuesday. “If we are unanimous on counts, what do we do, can we present them now?”
Attempts to prosecute the guards have previously foundered due to a series of legal mistakes by US officials and the case had attracted widespread attention in Iraq as a symbol of apparent American immunity.
During the trial’s emotional closing arguments, jurors were told of the “shocking amount of death, injury and destruction” that saw “innocent men, women and children mowed down” as they went about their daily lives in downtown Baghdad.
The federal prosecutor Anthony Asuncion said: “These men took something that did not belong to them; the lives of 14 human beings … they were turned into bloody, bullet-riddled corpses at the hands of these men.”
“It must have seemed like the apocalypse was here,” said Asuncion in his closing argument, as he described how many were shot in the back, at long range, or blown up by powerful grenades used by the US contractors.
0 comments:
Post a Comment