FORT HOOD, Texas – A military judge Wednesday rejected defense attempts to keep some of the notorious Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos from a jury in the scandal’s second trial.
Col. James Pohl, in a pretrial hearing for Spc. Sabrina Harman, gave prosecutors the go-ahead to show jurors 29 of the photos that prompted condemnation around the globe of U.S. military treatment of detainees at the prison in Iraq.
He also denied a defense request that detainees not be referred to as “victims” because it might prejudice the jury against Harman, and denied a defense request to present a statement allegedly made by an Iraqi detainee pictured in one of the photos because he could not be located and cross-examined about it.
Harman, a onetime pizza shop manager from Lorton, Va., is the second service member to go on trial on charges that she took part in mistreating detainees.
The trial was scheduled to begin Thursday with jury selection and opening statements. Charles Graner Jr., the alleged ringleader in the scandal and the only service member to be convicted at trial, was expected to be a witness.
Harman could face up to 6 1/2 years if convicted of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, five counts of maltreating detainees and dereliction of duty.
The 27-year-old reservist is accused of writing “rapeist” on the leg of one prisoner and forcing another to stand on a box with wires in his hands and telling him he would be electrocuted if he fell. In the photo, seen worldwide after the scandal broke, the hooded detainee is shown perched on a small box, with his hands outstretched.
In another photo, Harman gives a thumbs-up while posing with the corpse of an Iraqi detainee allegedly beaten by Navy SEALs at Abu Ghraib who later died while being interrogated by CIA agents.
Pohl refused to allow the defense to present a statement to investigators from the prisoner shown standing on the box. The prisoner, known as “Gilligan,” said in the statement that other soldiers forced him to stand on the box.
Pohl said the statement was not permissible because of questions about its trustworthiness and the fact that Gilligan could not located to be a sworn witness subject to cross-examination.
Capt. Cullen Sheppard, a prosecution spokesman, said the government tried without success to locate Gilligan after his release from U.S. custody.
Defense lawyer Frank Spinner said Gilligan’s statement was not critical, but that “I’m still astonished that the government objects to introducing a statement of the alleged victim.”
Earlier this year, Harman’s legal team tried to get the photograph-related counts dismissed altogether, arguing that the taking of the photos did not itself cause prisoners any harm. But Pohl ruled in March that a jury should decide whether taking the photos constituted a crime.
Pohl did drop a charge of engaging in indecent acts, which carried a maximum five-year penalty. On that charge, Harman had been accused of being among a group of guards who watched naked detainees masturbate.
Harman’s legal team tried to get the photograph-related counts dismissed outright earlier this year, arguing that the taking of the photos did not itself cause prisoners any harm. Pohl ruled that it would be up to a jury to decide whether taking the photos was a crime.
Four other Abu Ghraib guards have accepted plea agreements. Their sentences ranged from no time to serve to 8 1/2 years. Pfc. Lynndie England, the most recognizable Abu Ghraib defendant, also made a deal with prosecutors, but Pohl threw it out last week when sentencing testimony by Graner conflicted with England’s guilty plea on the conspiracy charge.
