WASHINGTON — A yearslong legal fight over a deadly shooting of civilians in an Iraq war zone reaches its reckoning point with the sentencing this week of four former Blackwater security guards.
Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, and Paul Slough face mandatory, decadeslong sentences because of firearms convictions. A fourth defendant, Nicholas Slatten, faces life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder. Liberty is a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.
At the hearing Monday in US District Court, defense lawyers intend to appeal for mercy by arguing that their clients acted in self-defense during a chaotic firefight in Baghdad.
They also plan to argue that sending the defendants to prison for decades would be an unfairly harsh outcome for men who have close family ties and proud military careers.
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The men were charged in the deaths of 14 Iraqis at Nisoor Square, a traffic circle in Baghdad. The killings caused an international uproar and became a dark episode of contractor violence during the Iraq War.
Defense lawyers argued that the contractors, who arrived at the square after a car bomb exploded, were targeted with gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police and shot back in self-defense. Prosecutors contended there was no incoming fire and the shooting was unprovoked.
The defendants — who were in Iraq to protect US diplomats — were convicted in October.