Death penalty sought

Sponsorship

Joe Copeland

by

Joe Copeland Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

Republish Article

You can republish articles in print or online. Simply copy the HTML below, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline, and credit to Cascade PBS. Republishing of the photos or videos embedded in an article can occur only if the photo or video is a copyright of Cascade Public Media ("CPM") and not of a third party. Photos and videos that are a copyright of CPM are not required to appear in the republished article, but if they are used, they must be embedded where they appear in the original article and must include the attribution to the CPM photographer.

You may reprint in any medium
You may edit only for tense and timeliness
If republishing in print you can edit for length if you follow our print republishing guidelines.
You may write your own headline
Include a byline and shirttail with credit and link to Cascade PBS
Include our tracking pixel
Remove if we ask

          <article>
            <header>
              <hgroup>
                <h1>Death penalty sought</h1>
                <h2><p>The U.S. Army said today that it will seek the death penalty in Joint Base Lewis-McChord court martial proceedings accusing Staff Sgt. John Bales of the murder of 16 Afghan civilians in March. The News Tribune has a good Associated Press rundown on today's announcement, noting that</p></h2>
              </hgroup>
               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
            </header>
            <p>The U.S. Army said today that it will seek the death penalty in Joint Base Lewis-McChord court martial proceedings accusing Staff Sgt. John Bales of the murder of 16 Afghan civilians in March. The News Tribune <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/12/19/2408261/army-seeks-death-penalty-in-afghan.html?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">has a good Associated Press rundown</a> on today's announcement, noting that the court martial jury would have to find him guilty of premeditated murder and find at least one aggravating circumstance. Those could include the murder of children, which heartbreakingly account for nine of the dead.AP reporter Gene Johnson's story recounts powerful testimony from Afghan witnesses at a pretrial hearing and notes that prosecutors have cited statements by Bales that, in their views, demonstrated "a clear memory of what he had done and consciousness of wrongdoing."Defense attorney John Henry Browne of Seattle pointed to the fact that Bales was serving his fourth tour of war-zone duty. Browne told AP: "The Army is not taking responsibility for Sgt. Bales and other soldiers that the Army knowingly sends into combat situations with diagnosed PTSD, concussive head injuries and other injuries."</p>
          </article>

The U.S. Army said today that it will seek the death penalty in Joint Base Lewis-McChord court martial proceedings accusing Staff Sgt. John Bales of the murder of 16 Afghan civilians in March. The News Tribune has a good Associated Press rundown on today's announcement, noting that the court martial jury would have to find him guilty of premeditated murder and find at least one aggravating circumstance. Those could include the murder of children, which heartbreakingly account for nine of the dead.AP reporter Gene Johnson's story recounts powerful testimony from Afghan witnesses at a pretrial hearing and notes that prosecutors have cited statements by Bales that, in their views, demonstrated "a clear memory of what he had done and consciousness of wrongdoing."Defense attorney John Henry Browne of Seattle pointed to the fact that Bales was serving his fourth tour of war-zone duty. Browne told AP: "The Army is not taking responsibility for Sgt. Bales and other soldiers that the Army knowingly sends into combat situations with diagnosed PTSD, concussive head injuries and other injuries."

Joe Copeland

By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi