Long sentences in Iraq killings

A former Blackwater guard is sentenced to life and three others to 30 years.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Blackwater security guard to life in prison and three others to 30 years each over a 2007 shooting that left 17 people dead in a Baghdad public square.

The sentences bring to a close one of the most painful episodes in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The killings sparked widespread criticism in Iraq and the U.S. over the use of former military personnel under loose government regulation to protect diplomats in the war zone.

Nicholas Slatten, 31, who was accused of firing the first shots, was sentenced to life for first-degree murder, and three other guards — Paul Slough, 35, Evan Liberty, 32, and Dustin Heard, 33 — to mandatory-minimum sentences of 30 years each on manslaughter and firearms charges, according to William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney.

“In killing and maiming unarmed civilians, these defendants acted unreasonably and without justification,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement. “In combination, the sheer amount of unnecessary human loss and suffering attributable to the defendants’ criminal conduct on Sept. 16, 2007, is staggering.”

Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth to sentence Slough to 57 years, Liberty to 51 years and Heard to 47 years.

The government had flown in dozens of Iraqi witnesses — the most foreigners ever to assist in a Justice Department prosecution — to testify about the Blackwater convoy called Raven 23 that opened fire with automatic weapons, sniper rifles and grenade launchers.

During the trial, prosecutors and Iraqi witnesses described the shootings as unprovoked, the result of callous, trigger-happy civilian security guards who were nervous about intelligence reports that a white Kia carrying a car bomb was in the city looking for a target.

The defense, which called only four witnesses, characterized the killings as a tragic mistake that started when unknown Iraqis opened fire on the Blackwater convoy.

Defense attorneys cautioned the jury against second-guessing the actions of fellow citizens who were reacting to what they believed was the sound of gunfire in a war zone.

The shootings stirred anti-U.S. passions around the globe and helped undercut Americans’ confidence in the mission in Iraq, particularly the use of private contractors, such as Blackwater, to supplement and, in some cases, replace the regular military.

It took the Washington jury an unusually long period — 28 days — to reach a verdict, reflecting the difficult issues presented by the trial.