A Blackwater security contractor is shown in Baghdad on July 5, 2005. Ex-Blackwater guards sentenced for Baghdad 'bloody Sunday' shooting

Four former security guards who worked as contractors for the U.S. government in Iraq received lengthy sentences for their roles in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

On Monday, a federal judge threw out motions for leniency. One of the four, sniper Nicholas Slatten, who was convicted of first-degree murder, was sentenced to life in prison. Slatten was accused of firing the first shots.


Three of the former contractors — Paul Slough, Dustin Heard and Evan Liberty — were convicted on multiple voluntary manslaughter charges, as well as charges related to the use of machine-guns, for their roles in the shootings and were sentenced to 30 years behind bars.

All four men have been in custody since their October convictions.

A fifth contractor, Jeremy Ridgeway, was also implicated in the case and awaits sentencing. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter and agreed to testify on behalf of the federal government.

Prosecutors accused the men of unjustified use of automatic weapons and grenades in a crowded intersection at Nisour Square, not far from Baghdad’s Green Zone. The federal government argued that the deaths should be considered violent crimes and not an unavoidable part of the U.S. war effort.

The incident came to be known as “Baghdad’s bloody Sunday,” the most violent episode against Iraqis involving U.S. government contractors during the decade-long war.

Dozens of Iraqi witnesses traveled to Washington to testify, the largest number of foreign witnesses ever brought before an American criminal trial.

Because of firearms charges brought along with the manslaughter charges, the three men faced mandatory minimum sentences of 30 years. Slatten’s conviction necessitated a sentence of life in prison. Lawyers for one of the convicted men called the three-decade mandatory minimum “more than ‘just punishment’” in court documents.

Lawyers for the men claimed they believed they were under fire themselves and facing a possible threat from a car-bomb.

Recently leaked emails, first reported by the New York Times, revealed discord between the Justice Department and F.B.I. over how to handle the mandatory minimum sentences associated with the charges.

The Bush administration exhibited “serious resistance” to the hefty minimum sentences associated with the additional machine-gun charges, federal prosecutor Kenneth Kohl wrote in an email to the F.B.I.

The F.B.I. agent on the case wrote back to Kohl that he “would rather not present for a [grand jury] vote now and wait until the new administration takes office than to get an indictment that is an insult to the individual victims, the Iraqi people as a whole, and the American people.”

Ultimately federal prosecutors brought one charge related to automatic weapons instead of two.

Defense attorneys have claimed that the machine-gun laws, first written in the wake of the crack cocaine epidemic, were meant to combat gang-related violence at home and should not apply to security contractors required by the State Department to carry such weapons. Without the machine-gun related charges, the men accused of manslaughter likely would not have faced more than a decade in prison.

The massacre created widespread outcry across Iraq and became a source of friction between the U.S. and Iraqi governments. In response to negative press, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services. (The name was again changed to Academi in 2010 after investors purchased the company.)

The sentences won’t necessarily end the now eight-year legal battle. Lawyers for the defendants will reportedly argue that the sentences are unconstitutionally cruel — especially considering the stressful environment in which the men operated. The Justice Department, on the other hand, has argued that the men displayed no remorse and have not accepted responsibility for the crimes, warranting long prison terms.

“The crimes here were so horrendous — the massacre and maiming of innocents so heinous — that they outweigh any factors that the defendants may argue form a basis for leniency,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

The department first brought charges against the men in 2008, but they were dismissed by a federal judge. Then, in 2013, a federal court overruled the judge’s decision and reinstated the charges. The four were convicted in October of 2014.

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Iraq

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