6 Months in Prison for Abu Ghraib Guard

Sgt. Javal S. Davis, who admitted abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in late 2003, was sentenced Friday to six months in a military prison and given a bad-conduct discharge from the Army.

A nine-man military jury deliberated for about 5 1/2 hours to determine the punishment for Davis, a former Abu Ghraib guard who confessed this week to stepping on the hands and feet of a group of handcuffed detainees and falling with his full weight on top of them.

The 27-year-old reservist from Roselle, N.J., faced up to 6 1/2 years in prison for battery, dereliction of duty and lying to Army investigators. A deal with prosecutors reportedly capped his sentence at 18 months.

Davis said he saw detainees being physically mistreated and sexually humiliated by other guards, but that he failed to help them or report the abuse, as required by military law. He admitted lying to an Army investigator by denying his misdeeds at the prison, near Baghdad.

Maj. Michael Holley, one of the prosecutors, asked the nine jurors to sentence Davis to 12 to 24 months in prison. Holley said Davis’ misdeeds had tarnished the image of American soldiers in the world’s eyes and endangered forces serving in Iraq.

“There must be consequences for those actions,” the prosecutor said in his closing arguments. “These assaults are best characterized by two words: brutal and cowardly.”

Defense lawyer Paul Bergrin implored the jury of four Army officers and five senior enlisted men to go lightly on Davis, saying he was a good man and soldier who had been punished enough for a lapse in judgment.

Bergrin said that Davis would forever have a felony conviction on his record, and that he had performed 10 months of menial duties, including painting curbs and picking up trash, while confined to a U.S. base in Iraq after his arrest.