Guardsman gets life for killing Afghan

July 28, 2011|Associated Press

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - A US Army National Guardsman was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with the chance of parole for the murder of an Afghan civilian.

Sergeant Derrick Miller, 27, of Hagerstown, Md., shook hands with several soldiers in his unit after the 10-member military jury delivered the sentence after two hours of deliberation. He was found guilty of premeditated murder.

His attorney had argued during two days of testimony that Miller acted in self-defense when he shot a man last September. The military has identified him as Atta Mohammed but his name was not used in court.

Defense attorney Charles Gittins told the jury that Miller stopped the man for questioning when he walked through a defensive perimeter that Miller’s unit had set up around a mortar unit.

Gittins said Miller believed the man could be a threat to his unit and that during questioning the man tried to grab Miller’s weapon.

But Specialist Charles Miller, an eyewitness and guardsman from Maryland, testified he heard Miller threatening to kill the man if he did not tell the truth and then straddling the man, who was lying on his back, before shooting him in the head.

READER COMMENTS »

View reader comments » Comment on this story »