No Jail Time for Army Contractor in Revenge Killing

[frigidmagi]

Wired

[quote]Don Ayala — the U.S. Army contractor who pleaded guilty to a revenge killing in Afghanistan — won’t be going to prison. Instead, U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton sentenced Ayala, a member of the Army’s Human Terrain social science project, to five years probation and a $12,500 fine.

Ayala (pictured, left) began working in Afghanistan in late September, as part of a Human Terrain Team, which embeds cultural advisers in combat units. Originally, the program was conceived as a way to find for commanders nonviolent options for stabilizing chaotic areas: Islamic radio broadcasts to mollify Afghan mullahs, shame tactics to nudge out corrupt Iraqi cops. “In a counterinsurgency, your level of success is inversely proportional to the amount of lethal force that you expend,â€

[General Havoc]

In a circumstance like that, I can't say I'd have acted any differently than this man did.

[LadyTevar]

I don't like that he killed someone already a prisoner, but I can fully understand his response. I won't say "reason", because I do not think he was acting on reasonable, rational thought at that point.

The "dormant combat stress injuriesâ€

[The Minx]

Ouch. I concur that he needs treatment more than jail time. What would jail possibly solve in this case?

I don't think that I would have done what he did. Though of course, it's really impossible to say how you react until you actually are in that kind of situation.