Prosecutor Recommends Death Penalty If Soldiers Found Guilty

On May 9th, 2006, three Iraqi men were allegedly taken from a home outside of Samarra and summarily executed by Uniteds States soldiers who claim "they were ordered to 'kill all military age males'" by their commanding officers.

The prosecutor in this case, Lt. Col. James P. Daniel Jr., is recommending the death sentence if these servicemen are proved guilty at their trial. An excerpt from the official report:"I believe Spc. Graber...did not enter an agreement but followed an order whether he agreed or not," Daniel wrote in his recommendation. "There is a difference between obedience and agreement."

I concur. There is a difference. However, I wasn't there and I don't know what happened but precedents are set and chaos soon ensues. Sounds to me like the prosecutor is acknowledging the soldiers followed orders so that in and of itself should eliminate the death penalty as an option. Extremely long prison sentence? Yes. Death? Not a chance.

I never excuse felonious behavior by our troops. They are the best in the world and should and I believe do, generally act as such. However, there is so much wrong with this recommendation of death I can't even clearly state it other than to say IF it happened, #1, I would assume stress and thus extenuating/mitigating circumstances should take the death sentence off the table. #2, There better be an investigation into the superiors' roles in this. #3, This recommendation was obtained by the Associated Press who got their hands on the Lt Col's report. The media, while I don't want them to be quiet as they serve a very vital role in the preservation of democracy (or used to anyway), needs to exercise much more restraint in what they release. Democracy is not threatened if the masses didn't know the prosecutor had recommended death at this point in time.