Marine’s fighter killing not a ‘cold-blooded execution’
ARoyal Marine who fatally shot an injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan was suffering from an “abnormality of mental functioning” at the time of the killing, an appeal court has ruled.
As five judges reduced Sergeant Alexander Blackman’s murder conviction to manslaughter, they found that the 2011 incident was not a “cold-blooded execution” as a court martial had earlier concluded, but the result of a mental illness – an “adjustment disorder”.
Blackman, 42, from Taunton, Somerset, had his murder conviction overturned by the Court Martial Appeal Court in London and replaced with a verdict of “manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility”.
There will now be a further hearing at a date to be fixed to decide on the sentence he now has to serve.
Blackman, who was not present for the ruling, was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years. That term was later reduced to eight years because of the combat stress disorder he was suffering from.
After the latest decision in the case was announced by Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, Blackman’s wife Claire said she was “delighted”, adding: “This is a crucial decision and one which better reflects the circumstances my husband found himself in during that terrible tour.”
The judges said Blackman had been “an exemplary soldier before his deployment to Afghanistan in March 2011”, but had “suffered from quite exceptional stressors” during his deployment. In reaching their decision on the conviction appeal, they had considered “what led the appellant to kill the insurgent at a time when he was incapacitated”.
The “key issue” was whether it was a “cold-blooded execution” as the court martial board concluded on the evidence before them, or whether it was “a substantial impairment of his ability to form a rational judgement or exercise self-control arising from his adjustment disorder”.
The court said: “The appellant’s decision to kill was probably impulsive and the adjustment disorder had led to an abnormality of mental functioning that substantially impaired his ability to exercise self-control.
“Given his prior exemplary conduct, we have concluded that it was the combination of the stressors, the other matters to which we have referred and his adjustment disorder that substantially impaired his ability to form a rational judgment.”
High-profile supporters of Sergeant Blackman, including author Frederick Forsyth, former members of the military and MPs welcomed the decision and vowed to get him released.