Court Rejects a Murder Conviction and Voids 3 Sentences in Blackwater Case
4, 2017
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday threw out the lengthy sentences for three former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors
and ordered a new trial for a fourth man involved in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad.
The four former Blackwater contractors had asked the court to overturn the convictions entirely, arguing
that the Justice Department had no jurisdiction to bring charges for possible crimes committed in Iraq.
The machine-gun charge was always contentious, even inside the Justice Department, where some prosecutors believed it was unfair to add an extra penalty for using a weapon
that the United States government required them to carry.
agent once called it the "My Lai massacre of Iraq." Three men, Dustin L. Heard, Evan S. Liberty
and Paul A. Slough, were convicted in 2014 of voluntary manslaughter and using a machine gun to carry out a violent crime.
Federal law gives the Justice Department the ability to bring charges against contractors
traveling with or supporting the mission of the Defense Department.
Mr. Slatten had faced manslaughter charges, but prosecutors missed a filing deadline in his case
and inadvertently let the statute of limitations expire, leaving them with the choice of prosecuting him for murder or dropping the charges.