Defense strategy emerges for U.S. soldier accused of fratricide in Iraq

[unhappycamper]

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/defense-strategy-emerges-for-us-soldier-accused-of-fratricide-in-iraq


Defense strategy emerges for U.S. soldier accused of fratricide in Iraq
Thu, 14 Mar 2013 05:20 GMT
Source: reuters // Reuters
By Laura L. Myers

TACOMA, Wash., March 13 (Reuters) - An American soldier charged with the 2009 killing of five fellow servicemen in Iraq was at risk of suicide and was provoked by a military psychiatrist who failed to properly treat him, his lawyer said in court on Wednesday.

A likely defense strategy formulated by attorneys for Army Sergeant John Russell, 48, came into sharper focus during the second day of a pre-trial hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Washington, where Russell faces a court-martial next month on capital murder charges.

Much of the focus was on an Army psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Jones, a lieutenant colonel at a military counseling center in Iraq who talked to Russell briefly on May 11, 2009, and then chased Russell when he fled the clinic near Baghdad airport.

Russell is accused of returning to the center the same day and shooting dead two medical staff officers and three soldiers who happened to be there.



unhappycamper comment: Five combat tours in three years will do that to you......