Donald Trump pardons former soldier Michael Behenna who was convicted of murdering prisoner in Iraq
- Behenna stripped, interrogated then shot the man dead. White House statement said pardon had support of military and was ‘entirely deserving’
In a Monday evening statement, the White House announced Trump’s decision to sign an executive grant of clemency, which amounts to a full pardon, citing support from the military community and Oklahoma elected officials, some of whom ran a public campaign for the president’s order. Behenna, the statement said, was “entirely deserving”.
The former soldier, now 35, fought to overturn his conviction on the grounds the prosecution hid evidence that would have benefited his case. The judge denied the effort, but Behenna’s sentence was ultimately reduced to 15 years and he was released on parole in 2014. Before Trump’s pardon, Behenna faced another five years of parole.
US forces took Mansur into custody soon after a roadside bomb hit a convoy travelling north of Baghdad, killing two of Behenna’s friends and platoon members. An intelligence report linked Mansur to the attack, but he was freed when the military could not find conclusive evidence of his involvement, according to Behenna’s pardon application.
I’m grateful that the long road for Michael Behenna and his family has finally come to a joyous end
Behenna was then ordered to transport Mansur back to his village. Instead, Behenna took him to a secluded railway culvert and demanded more information from him.
At his 2009 court martial, Behenna said Mansur lunged for his weapon during the interrogation.
“I was scared Ali Mansur was going to take my weapon and use it against me,” he said at the time. “This happened very fast.”
Since his conviction, Behenna, an Oklahoma native, has won the support of former governor Mary Fallin, state Attorney General Mike Hunter and more than 30 retired generals and admirals – among them Trump’s former special envoy for the Persian Gulf, retired general Anthony Zinni.
Late on Monday, Oklahoma Republican senators James Lankford and James Inhofe, praised Trump for the decision.
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“I’m grateful that the long road for Michael Behenna and his family has finally come to a joyous end,” Lankford said in the joint statement. “Michael now gets a clean slate and a second chance at life.”
In a 2018 letter to Trump, when Hunter first asked the president to pardon Behenna, Hunter conceded that some of Behenna’s actions were “undoubtedly wrong and condemnable”.
“But that does not mean he deserves the label ‘murderer’,” Hunter wrote, “or the lifelong punishment and stigma that come with being a federal criminal”.
On Monday, Hunter applauded Trump and said Behenna has “admitted to his mistakes, has learned from them and deserves to move on”.
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Behenna recently said he was hopeful but cautious about his chances of being pardoned.
“We know we have a president who is very sympathetic to the very difficult situation that soldiers, sailors and Marines were put in during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,” said John Richter, who represented Behenna.
The pardon is the eighth Trump has issued and the first since July, when he granted clemency to the father-and-son cattle ranchers whose case helped spark the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.
