Thread: Four Blackwater guards sentenced in Iraq shootings of 31 unarmed civilians

Four Blackwater guards sentenced in Iraq shootings of 31 unarmed civilians

This combination made from file photo shows Blackwater guards, from left, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough. A years-long legal fight over a deadly mass shooting of civilians in an Iraq war zone reaches its reckoning point, when the former Blackwater security guards are sentenced for the rampage. Three of the guards, Heard, Liberty and Slough, face mandatory decades-long sentences because of firearms convictions. Slatten, faces a penalty of life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder. (AP Photo) (AP/AP)

By Spencer S. Hsu and Victoria St. Martin April 13 at 4:05 PM

A federal judge in Washington handed down prison terms of 30 years to life behind bars to four Blackwater Worldwide guards convicted in a deadly 2007 shooting that killed 14 unarmed Iraqis and injured others in a Baghdad traffic circle.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Nicholas A. Slatten of Sparta, Tenn., to life in prison. Slatten is the only of the four guards convicted of murder in the incident, in which American security contractors fired assault rifles and grenades into halted noonday traffic, a low point of the U.S. war in Iraq that sent relations between the two countries into a crisis.

Three other guards, Paul A. Slough of Keller, Tex.; Evan S. Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; and Dustin L. Heard of Knoxville, Tenn., were convictedof multiple counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in the Sept. 16, 2007, incident at Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. All three were sentenced Monday to 30 years plus one day in prison.

“It’s clear that these fine young men panicked,” said Lamberth, an Army veteran and Reagan appointee who served as chief district judge from 2008 to 2013.

While defendants have filed appeals, Monday’s sentencing brought an emphatic end to the U.S. government’s years-long effort to demonstrate accountability for American security contractors’ conduct on the battlefield.

In sentencing documents, federal prosecutors called on a judge in Washington to impose lengthy prison terms. The four defendants sought leniency, saying they have been unfairly singled out for harsh treatment for a wartime tragedy.

Jurors found that the defendants, at the time among 19 Blackwater guards providing security for State Department officials in Iraq, shot recklessly and out of control after one of them falsely claimed that their convoy, called Raven 23, was threatened by a car bomber.

The guards claimed that they acted in self-defense after coming under AK-47 gunfire as they cleared a path back to the nearby Green Zone for another Blackwater team that was evacuating a U.S. official from a nearby car bombing.

Prosecutors said in court Monday that the men were guilty of an atrocity against innocent Iraqis, and cited the appalled testimony of fellow Blackwater guards who told jurors that the defendants fired destructive weapons without provocation.

The other contractors “chose to abide by their training, and not to shoot first and make excuses later,” Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Patrick Martin said. “This was one instance they could not back the actions of their teammates.”

Patrick said a lengthy sentence would deter future unwarranted bloodshed by American contractors, passing along the lesson: “You are entrusted to do a job with deadly weapons, but you must use them only when necessary, and their use must be justified. You can’t just shoot first and seek justification later.”

Supporters of Blackwater guards gather outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Court House on Monday in Washington. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)

The U.S. government noted that relatives of two victims were in the courtroom, including the father, mother and three siblings of a 9-year-old victim, Ali Mohammed Hafedh Abdul Rezzaq.

“Today we will see who wins, the law, or Blackwater,” said Mohammed Kinani, the father of Ali, who urged the judge to pass a sentence that will be a “lesson to criminals like them . . . and a lesson to history.”

Dozens of people gathered in the courtroom, including Justice Department attorneys, former jurors and representatives who wore T-shirts bearing photographs of shooting victims.

Families of all four defendants were also among dozens of supporters dressed in black and red clothing with the Raven 23 logo.

Before the sentencing, Christin Slough, 34, the wife of Paul Slough, said relatives had been constrained to keep quiet during legal proceedings but now would speak out against what they believe is an unjust prosecution.

“For seven years, this has been about seeking a conviction, not the truth. We are not going to be silent any more,” said Christin Slough, of Sanger, Tex. “We are hopeful the judge will recognize the true character of these men and sentence them as leniently as possible.”

Slatten faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for first-degree murder. Prosecutors urged Lamberth to exceed federal guidelines and sentence the three others to longer than the mandatory minimum of 30-year terms they face for using military firearms while committing a felony.

The defendants, all military veterans with no or minimal criminal records, cited their honorable intentions while under extraordinary duress — facing an out-of-uniform guerilla insurgency in a foreign war zone — and asked for modest terms that might permit them to return to spend productive years in society and with their families.
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“Nicholas A. Slatten, like many young men and women of his generation, dedicated and sacrificed the best years of his youth in honorable service to his country. ... He is an innocent man,” said Slatten's attorneys, with the Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP law firm, who have appealed the verdict saying he did not cause the tragedy or kill any innocent people.

Heard “presents no threat to society,” his attorney, David Schertler, of the Schertler & Onorato LLP law firm in a sentencing plea to Lamberth. He “served his country honorably, and his crimes occurred under circumstances in which no person can be expected to make pristine judgments,” Schertler said.

Liberty’s attorney, William Coffield, of the Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP law firm, wrote, “All of the offenses for which Mr. Liberty has been convicted occurred within the span of a few short and chaotic minutes. . . . His life, as he built it is over.”

In asking for leniency from Lamberth, the men presented letters attesting to their character and community contributions from parents and siblings, wives and children, former service mates, employers and clergy, among others.

Brian M. Heberlig, head of Slough’s defense team at the Steptoe & Johnson LLP law firm, called his client an exemplary soldier and contractor whose judgement often saved the lives of Iraq civilians.

“Mr. Slough has dedicated his life to serving his country, uplifting his family, and to helping others through his Christian faith,” Heberlig wrote.

Heberlig wrote that military authorities “familiar with the vagaries of war” treated differently U.S. service members accused of killing 25 unarmed Iraqis in a 2005 raid on their home in Anbar province.

Assault and manslaughter charges were dismissed against six U.S. Marines in the Haditha incident, another was acquitted and an eighth man was convicted of dereliction of duty, receiving a reduction in rank and no jail time.

The security firm’s founder, Erik Prince, eventually left the company, which was renamed Xe Services, then later sold and renamed Academi.

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