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Soldier guilty in Iraq abuse

Pfc. Lynndie England's conviction closes the main chapter in the prosecution of the reservists charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse.

By wire services
Published September 27, 2005

FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Pfc. Lynndie R. England, the reservist who was captured in infamous photographs humiliating detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, was found guilty of six of seven charges Monday in the final court martial for the original group of soldiers who touched off an international furor over U.S. treatment of prisoners.

England, 22, faces as many as nine years in prison after a jury of five military officers at Fort Hood found her guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.

Standing at attention in her Army dress uniform, England remained stoic as the verdict was read, as she has throughout the five-day trial. The trial's sentencing phase begins today.

Faced with the evidence in the photographs, her defense lawyers never sought to deny that England had participated in the mistreatment. After the verdict, her lawyer, Capt. Jonathan Crisp, sounded unsurprised at the conviction.

"I guess the only reaction I can say is, I understand," he said in brief comments to reporters.

Although appeals are possible, the conviction closes the main chapter in the Army's prosecution of nine reservists who were charged with mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Two others, including England's former boyfriend, Pvt. Charles A. Graner Jr., who held the rank of specialist at Abu Ghraib, were convicted in trials, and the remaining six reached plea deals.

England, who is from West Virginia, had sought to plead guilty to the charges in May, in exchange for a reduced sentence. But the plea deal collapsed that month after Graner testified that the treatment of the prisoners had been legitimate and that she had participated at his request. That led the military judge overseeing the case, Col. James L. Pohl, to throw out the plea deal, ruling that Graner's testimony contradicted England's admission of guilt.

Beyond the sordid photos, prosecutors pointed to England's statement to Army investigators in January 2004 that the mistreatment was done to amuse the U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib.

"The accused knew what she was doing," said Capt. Chris Graveline, the lead prosecutor. "She was laughing and joking. ... She is enjoying, she is participating, all for her own sick humor."

Crisp countered that England was only trying to please her soldier boyfriend, Graner, labeled the abuse ringleader by prosecutors.

"She was a follower, she was an individual who was smitten with Graner," Crisp said. "She just did whatever he wanted her to do."

Graner, who was demoted from corporal, is the father of England's 11-month-old child; he has since married another reservist, Megan M. Ambuhl, who pleaded guilty in the scandal.

After the photographs came to light last year, senior Pentagon officials initially sought to characterize the scandal as an aberration carried out by rogue military police soldiers on the prison's night shift. Since then, the Army has opened more than 400 inquiries into detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, and punished 230 enlisted soldiers and officers.

--Information from the Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Post was used in this report.

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]