FORT HOOD, Texas, 5 May 2005 — A military judge yesterday ended the court martial of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse suspect Lynndie England after throwing out her guilty plea for one of the charges.
“We’re going to have to declare a mistrial on at least part of this,” said the judge, Col. James Pohl, after a dramatic day of hearings at the Fort Hood base in Texas.
England achieved international notoriety by being photographed holding a leash attached to a naked Iraqi inmate at the prison near Baghdad.
But Pohl said there was no way to resolve contradictions in her guilty plea to conspiring to mistreat prisoners, after Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader in the abuse, testified that he had ordered England to hold the leash. As a result of the judge’s decision to suspend proceedings, England’s plea bargaining agreement with the prosecution is no longer valid and the entire case must now go back to the US military authorities.
Graner’s testimony contradicted England’s written statement and testimony that she knew that posing for the picture of her holding a leash attached to the naked, mentally ill patient was wrong. It also contradicted the charge that England conspired to abuse the prisoners because Graner insisted that he did not act unlawfully. “You can’t have a one person conspiracy,” Pohl said.
Earlier, Judge Pohl called a halt for three hours after testimony of a witness called by England appeared to undermine her acceptance of guilt. England’s smiling face on pictures of naked and humiliated Iraqis is a lasting image of the scandal. “There is evidence being presented that you are not guilty,” Pohl told England.
“If you don’t believe you are guilty, if you honestly believe you were doing what Graner told you to do, then you can’t plead guilty,” the judge said. England had agreed to plead guilty in return for a shorter sentence.
In testimony before the six-member military jury, England’s lawyers have been trying to present mitigating circumstances in explaining how she turned up in the photos, taken at the prison outside Baghdad in late 2003.
The judge had repeatedly made clear the guilty plea would be jeopardized by any statements by England or evidence in her defense that would undercut her admission of guilt.
