Sgt. Robert Bales Expected to Give His Account of Afghan Massacre
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US Army(SEATTLE) — An American soldier charged with murdering 16 Afghan civilians is expected to publicly give his account of the massacre for the first time in a court hearing on Wednesday when he pleads guilty to avoid the death penalty.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales has been charged with 16 counts of premeditated murder, six counts of attempted murder and seven counts of assault.
The charges stem from an event in March 2012 when Bales allegedly snuck out of his remote outpost in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar to go on a shooting spree in two nearby villages. The pre-dawn attack left 16 villagers dead and six injured. Nine of those killed were children.
Bales, 39, is a father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash.
On Wednesday, a judge is expected to look at Bales’ 50-page plea agreement, which he or she would have to approve as well as the commanding general at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Bales is being held.
If the plea is accepted, a jury this summer would decide whether Bales should be sentenced to live in prison with or without the possibility for parole.
In a November preliminary hearing, several of his fellow soldiers testified that Bales returned to the base alone just before dawn, covered in blood, and that he made incriminating statements such as, “I thought I was doing the right thing.” Some of the blood on his person was later matched to at least one of the shooting victims, according to prosecutors.
Evidence was also presented that suggested Bales conducted the alleged massacre as revenge for previous attacks on his unit, particularly a roadside bomb attack a few weeks earlier that severely wounded a fellow soldier. Bales did not testify during the two-week hearing, which was to determine if he would face a court martial, but some of the surviving villagers did appear via satellite from Afghanistan.
Some of his squad mates admitted to having consumed alcohol prior to the attacks, but said Bales did not seem to have been incapacitated by the alcohol.
Bales’ attorneys have said that their client’s mental state may have possibly been clouded by the alcohol as well as steroids and sleeping aids he had taken, but prosecutors countered that comments made by Bales after he was apprehended demonstrated he had a clear state of mind about the violent acts he is alleged to have committed.
An Army press release said that Bales faces a maximum punishment of death if he is convicted of the charges against him. However, the release noted it may be difficult for prosecutors to obtain such a sentence.
“For capital punishment to be imposed, the court-martial members must unanimously find: the service member is guilty of the eligible crime; at least one aggravating factor exists; and that the aggravating factor must substantially outweigh any extenuating or mitigating circumstances found by the court-martial members,” it says.
There has not been a military execution since 1961.
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