SAN DIEGO -- A military jury on Tuesday acquitted a decorated Navy SEAL of premeditated murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017.
Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was cleared of all charges except for posing for photos with the dead body of the captive. It took the jury less than two days of deliberations to reach its verdict.
"Suffice it to say this is a huge victory," defense lawyer Marc Mukasey said outside court. "It's a huge weight off the Gallaghers."
Gallagher, dressed in a white Navy uniform and sporting a chest full of medals, told reporters outside court that he was happy and thankful.
"I thank God and my legal team and my wife," he said.
His wife, Andrea Gallagher, who was by his side throughout the court-martial, said she was elated.
"I was feeling like we're finally vindicated after being terrorized by the government that my husband fought for for 20 years," she said.
Defense lawyers said Gallagher was framed by disgruntled platoon members who fabricated the allegations to oust their chief. The lawyers said there was no physical evidence to support the allegations.
The prosecution said Gallagher's own text messages and photos incriminated him. They included photos of Gallagher holding the dead militant up by the hair and clutching a knife in his other hand.
A text message that Gallagher sent while deployed said, "got him with my hunting knife."
Defense lawyers repeatedly told the jury that there was no forensic evidence and no blood found on the knife.
Both sides said witnesses had lied on the stand and that it was the jurors' duty to push through the evidence to find the truth. Gallagher, 40, did not take the stand.
The panel of five Marines and two sailors, including a SEAL, had to weigh whether Gallagher, a 19-year veteran on his eighth deployment, fatally stabbed the war prisoner on May 3, 2017, or whether he was the victim of allegations fabricated to stop him from getting a Silver Star and being promoted.
It's not known whether any of Gallagher's jurors voted for a conviction on the most serious charges; vote tallies are not made public in military cases.
Gallagher was also charged with attempted murder in the shootings of two Iraqi civilians, as well as counts of unlawful discharge of his firearm by shooting at noncombatants, wrongfully posing with a human casualty, impeding an investigation by discouraging platoon members from reporting his criminal actions, and retaliating against those who did.
The two-week trial featured the testimonies of nearly a dozen SEALs.
Seven SEALs said Gallagher unexpectedly stabbed the captive moments after he and the other SEAL medics treated the detainee, who was wounded in an airstrike that morning outside Mosul, Iraq. Two testified that they saw Gallagher plunge his knife into the prisoner's neck.
Defense lawyers said the pictures of Gallagher, a Bronze Star recipient, clutching the corpse's hair and his texts about his knife skills were just the dark humor of a warrior.
Marine Staff Sgt. Giorgio Kirylo said that after the militant died, he moved the body to take a "cool guy trophy" photo with it and saw no stab wounds on his neck.
Most of the witnesses were granted immunity to protect them from being prosecuted for acts they described on the stand.
A Section on 07/03/2019