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USA: SERGEANT BALES’ LAWYER ADMITS HIS CLIENT COULD BE EXECUTED
March 18, 2012: Robert Bales, the US soldier who massacred 16 Afghans, could face the death penalty. Staff Sergeant Bales’ lawyer admitted his client could be executed for shooting villagers including women and children.
Bales, 38, white, is in a top-security US military jail after he was flown from Afghanistan.
His lawyer John Browne said: “There is a discussion of the death penalty. It’s certainly not off the table at this point. Our hope is that maybe it will be.” Bales, 38, is likely to be charged within 2 weeks and prosecutors then have 90 days to prepare their case. Mr Browne said his state of mind may have made him snap. Officials think he may have been drunk. He suffered a mild brain injury and lost part of a foot in incidents in Iraq and is believed to have been next to a comrade whose leg was blown off a day before the slaughter in Kandahar province.
US records show Bales was involved in drink-related incidents in civilian life and in 2002 he was ordered to have anger management therapy over an alleged assault. But neighbours in the town of Lake Tapps in the northwest state of Washington described him as a good father who loved playing with daughter aged 4 and son, 3.
Wife Karilyn has told of his disappointment at being passed over for promotion. (Source: The Mirror, 18/03/2012)
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