United States v. Harman

68 M.J. 325 (2010)

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United States v. Harman

United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
68 M.J. 325 (2010)

Facts

Specialist Sabrina D. Harman (defendant), an Army reservist assigned as a guard at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, was convicted by general court-martial of offenses including maltreatment of detainees in violation of Article 93 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Harman admitted to investigators that on November 4, 2003, she attached wires to the fingers of a detainee who had been forced to stand on a box with a hood over his head and told the detainee that he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box. Harman then took photographs of the detainee as he stood on the box for an hour. On November 7, 2003, Harman observed as other soldiers physically assaulted a group of detainees who were handcuffed and placed sandbags over their heads. Harman continued to observe as the other soldiers took the detainees’ clothes off and forced them to form a human pyramid. Harman photographed the soldiers’ actions, wrote “I’m a rapeist (sic)” on the naked thigh of a detainee, and posed with the nude pyramid of detainees while smiling and giving the thumbs up sign. At least one of the detainees knew that he was being photographed. Harman later told an investigator that she didn’t think the nude pyramid was wrong. The incidents were discovered by authorities after another soldier reported them. The United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Harman’s conviction. Harman appealed, arguing that she was not guilty of maltreatment because her actions had not caused any of the detainees to suffer physical pain.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Stucky, J.)

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