Massacre plea accepted

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Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Massacre plea accepted</h1>
                <h2><p>An Army judge today accepted the guilty plea of staff Sgt. Robert Bales to charges that he murdered 16 Afghanistan civilians, ruling that Bales will face no threat of the death penalty. Bales told the court, "There's not a good reason in the world for why I</p></h2>
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               <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>
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            <p>An <a href="http://blog.thenewstribune.com/military/2013/06/05/staff-sgt-robert-bales-to-give-his-account-of-kandahar-massacre-today-at-jblm-at-plea-hearing/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">Army judge today accepted </a>the guilty plea of staff Sgt. Robert Bales to charges that he murdered 16 Afghanistan civilians, ruling that Bales will face no threat of the death penalty. Bales told the court, "There's not a good reason in the world for why I did the horrible things I did." The obvious question: If the United States won't impose a death penalty for massacring women and children it is supposed to be helping, can the government continue to pursue capital punishment against any foreign nationals? Even if you leave aside moral qualms about capital punishment, how two-faced would that look to the rest of the world?</p>
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An Army judge today accepted the guilty plea of staff Sgt. Robert Bales to charges that he murdered 16 Afghanistan civilians, ruling that Bales will face no threat of the death penalty. Bales told the court, "There's not a good reason in the world for why I did the horrible things I did." The obvious question: If the United States won't impose a death penalty for massacring women and children it is supposed to be helping, can the government continue to pursue capital punishment against any foreign nationals? Even if you leave aside moral qualms about capital punishment, how two-faced would that look to the rest of the world?

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