Army Officer Convicted in Iraqi's Death Is Freed

By REUTERS/published in New York Times 4/2/05

BERLIN, April 1 (Reuters) - A United States Army tank company commander convicted of fatally shooting a wounded Iraqi was freed Friday after a court-martial, although he was dismissed from the Army for what he called a "mercy killing."
The officer, Capt. Rogelio Maynulet, had faced 10 years in prison.

The shooting occurred last May when American troops...fired on a car, wounding the driver and a passenger. Captain Maynulet, 30, of Chicago, said he then shot and killed the driver to put him out of his misery. "He was in a state I didn't think was dignified - I had to put him out of his misery," Captain Maynulet said in his defense.
The mercy killing argument was used by the defense in the cases of two American soldiers who were convicted in December and January of murdering an Iraqi teenager.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/international/europe/02soldier.html

Warning: If you juxtapose this report with the Schiavo case your Republican hypocrisy tolerance may overload.

This unit's head will now explode.