U.S. Soldier Gets 24 Years For Killing Three Afghans

Spc. Jeremy Morlock pleaded guilty to killing three Afghan civilians, saying, “the plan was to kill people” as part of a conspiracy with four other soldiers.

The 22-year-old Morlock is a key figure in a war crimes probe that has raised some of the most serious criminal allegations to come from the war in Afghanistan. Army investigators accused him of taking a lead role in the killings of three unarmed Afghan men in Kandahar province in January, February and May 2010.

His sentencing Wednesday came hours after he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, and one count each of conspiracy, obstructing justice and illegal drug use at his court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.

Morlock is the first of five soldiers to be court-martialed in the case.

Morlock told the judge that he and the other soldiers first began plotting to murder unarmed Afghans in late 2009, several weeks before the first killing took place. To make the killings appear justified, the soldiers planned to plant weapons near the bodies of the victims, he said.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.