Judge to decide fate of U.S. soldier who killed servicemen in Iraq

By Eric M. Johnson

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A military judge is expected to rule on Thursday whether a U.S. soldier who faces a likely life sentence for killing five fellow servicemen in a 2009 shooting spree in Iraq will ever be eligible for parole.

In a deal that spared him the death penalty, U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, a combat stress clinic in Baghdad.

The military has said the shooting may have been triggered by combat stress.

Russell faced an abbreviated court-martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to determine the level of his guilt, and the military judge in the case ruled on Monday that the 48-year-old Texan had killed with premeditation.

The judge, Army Colonel David Conn, is scheduled to sentence Russell early on Thursday morning at the Pacific Northwest military base, one of the nation's largest.

The mandatory sentence for even a single count of premeditated murder is life in prison, and proceedings this week saw both sides argue over whether Russell should ever be eligible for parole.

Russell's state of mind before, during and after the attack, one of the worst incidents of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war, has been central to legal proceedings over the past year.

Conn, in ruling that the killings were premeditated, ultimately sided with prosecutors who said Russell tried to gain an early exit from the Army and then sought revenge on a mental health worker who would not help him achieve that goal.

An Army forensic science officer who analyzed the scene after the attack testified that Russell killed with the tactical precision of a trained soldier.

Defense attorneys countered that Russell's mental health had been severely weakened by several combat tours, and that he was suicidal prior to the attack and provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of healthcare workers whom he sought for help.

In the final hour, filled with suicidal despair and rage, they said, he cracked.

A forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff of the University of Pennsylvania, concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings and had death wishes related to his illnesses.

"My plan was to kill myself," Russell said during his plea hearing. "I wanted the pain to stop."

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-decide-fate-u-soldier-killed-servicemen-iraq-110231315.html

whitney houston death the vow the voice season 2 ron paul maine safe house jay z and beyonce baby cpac