Richmond was 20 when an Army court-martial panel convicted him of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to three years in prison for killing the handcuffed Iraqi civilian near Taal Al Jai in February 2004. Richmond also received a dishonorable discharge from the Army.
Richmond initially was charged with unpremeditated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. But the panel of five officers and five enlisted soldiers reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter.
The Army said Richmond shot Muhamad Husain Kadir, a cow herder, in the back of the head from about six feet away after the man stumbled. Richmond testified that he didn’t know Kadir was handcuffed and believed the Iraqi man was going to harm a fellow soldier.
Richmond initially was charged with unpremeditated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. But the panel of five officers and five enlisted soldiers reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter.
Which… is still murdering someone? And probably a war crime? So shouldn’t he still be in prison?
You’d think, but brown overseas lives are pretty worthless in our halls of power unfortunately
On a related note, sure is weird how every time we have a big war there’s a noticeable uptick in racist bullshit a couple of years after (WWI preceded a resurgence in the KKK, WWII preceded all the church bombings and other crimes of the civil rights era, Vietnam preceded Reagan giving his campaign kickoff speech at the site of a famous lynching and all the stuff that happened in the 80s and early 90s, the War on Terror preceded Trump, etc.). It’s almost like putting a lot of people in situations where they think they have to dehumanize and kill the residents of countries they’re occupying has lasting impacts the people with power refuse to reckon with or something.
The WoT preceded Trump for sure, but 9/11 was the start of a racist wave against Muslim-Americans which still hasn’t ended. It’s not like they were ever treated as ‘full Americans’ by racists, but suddenly it was open season on them post-9/11. And not just Muslims. A Sikh man was murdered because the murderer thought he was a Muslim due to the turban Sikhs have to wear.
I mean obviously the current war in Israel is also enflaming anti-Muslim (and anti-Jewish) sentiment in the U.S., but 9/11 lit a huge flame which has yet to go out 23 years later.
Think those wars might be largely unrelated to race relations. It’s more that racism is an ongoing problem in this country. You can look after every major war and see huge racism problems, but you can also look before every major war, and during every major war, and when there are no wars going on.
