TACOMA, WASH, Aug 14: Lawyers for a U.S. Soldier who pleaded guilty in June to the slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians sought the dismissal of the prosecution team at a hearing, saying a document they saw could compromise the fairness of the upcoming sentencing proceeding.
Attorneys for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales complained yesterday that his constitutional right not to incriminate himself was violated when the judge in the case mistakenly provided prosecutors with an unredacted copy of a court-ordered mental health evaluation.
Bales, in a deal that spares him the death penalty, pleaded guilty in June to walking off his base in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province before dawn on March 11, 2012, and gunning down civilians in their homes in at least two villages.
But he will still face a sentencing hearing next week that will determine whether he will ever have a shot at parole or spend the rest of his life in prison, and his lawyers argued that the fairness of that proceeding had been compromised.
“He was compelled and ordered to talk to the sanity board over our objection and he was promised it would never be used for any reason,” said John Henry Browne, Bales’ civilian attorney, speaking to reporters after the hearing. “It’s actually really pretty simple.”
(agencies)
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