Fort Hood, Texas – A military jury convicted on Monday the second soldier to be tried in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, returning guilty verdicts on all but one of the seven charges she faced for her role in the abuse of Iraqi inmates.
A panel of four Army officers and four senior enlisted soldiers convicted Spec. Sabrina Harman on four counts of maltreating detainees, a count of conspiracy to maltreat detainees and a count of dereliction of duty.
The 27-year-old reservist from Lorton, Va., was acquitted on one maltreatment count that accused her of photographing a group of Iraqi detainees who were forced by guards to masturbate in public.
One of Harman’s co-defendants testified last week that she was not present when that incident occurred.
The jury also found that Harman did not commit two of the nine acts that were part of the dereliction charge, but she was convicted of the overall offense.
Jurors deliberated for about 3 1/2 hours before returning their decision. Harman showed no reaction while the foreman read the verdicts. She left the building without speaking to reporters.
Her sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin today. Harman faces a maximum of 5 1/2 years in a military prison.
Six co-defendants in the Abu Ghraib case have made plea bargains. Pvt. Charles Graner Jr. was convicted in January and is serving a 10-year sentence.
Pfc. Lynndie England, the most recognizable Abu Ghraib defendant, also reached a plea deal, but the judge threw it out in early May after Graner’s testimony contradicted England’s assertion that she knew her actions were wrong.
Harman, a former pizza shop manager from Virginia, was the second soldier to be tried for allegedly mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib. She was depicted in several of the most notorious photos taken at Abu Ghraib in late October and early November 2003, and she is accused of taking pictures.
Harman posed for a photo with Graner behind naked detainees stacked in a pyramid. In another photo, she was shown with a prisoner on whose leg she is accused of writing “rapeist.”
Earlier Monday, prosecutors said in closing arguments that Harman and other guards on the night shift at Abu Ghraib conspired to mistreat the prisoners.
“They were all acting together for their own amusement,” said Capt. Chris Graveline. “There was no justification for what they did that night.”
