Travesty of Justice : The Shocking Prosecution of Lt. Clint Lorance (2019) by Brown Don

Author:Brown, Don [Brown, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

One Year and One Month Later

U.S. Military Courthouse

Fort Bragg, N.C.

Aug. 1, 2013, 6:10 p.m. EST

In a fog of disbelief, Clint sat between his two lawyers, Mr. Guy Womack, the retired Marine JAG officer whose fees had been paid for by borrowed money, and his appointed U.S. Army JAG defense counsel, Capt. William Grady. The military judge, after having announced that he was guilty of murder, now gave instructions to the military jury on their duty to sentence him.

Murder?

Could this be happening? Murder? For ordering his men to fire on a charging motorcycle in a Taliban hot zone? That was speeding down a road used almost exclusively by the Taliban? When the Taliban had been killing Americans with suicide motorcycle attacks?

What was he supposed to do? Just wait until some Taliban rushes his men and blows themselves up, and kill his men? And do nothing? Doing nothing against these motorcycle attacks had gotten Americans killed. Those National Guardsmen from Ohio—three of them killed in a Taliban motorcycle charge in Faryab Province. And three weeks before Clint’s last day as platoon leader, the motorcycle charge at the main gate at Kandahar, killed 22 pro-American Afghans and wounded another 50.

Even since Clint had returned to Fort Bragg, in 2013, the Taliban had continued to kill by motorcycle bombs. As recently as June of that year, about 60 days before his trial began, two American soldiers, an Afghan policeman, and 10 children had been killed by a motorcycle suicide bomber. Before that, across the Afghan border in Pakistan, the Talban had killed 84 people in a powerful motorcycle bombing attack in January.

He had been given a split-second that day to make a decision, deep in between a grape berm where he could see nothing. What was he supposed to do? Pray that the motorcycle was not going to blow the hell up and take out his men with it? Or do the responsible thing and try to stop what was a clear threat?

What kind of an officer would he be if he had done nothing, and four or five of his men had been transformed to goo by bombs strapped under some Taliban members robe, then sent home in body bags to their wives, children and mothers?

Okay, so the men at the time weren’t armed when they checked the bodies. And they never knew if the motorcycle was armed with bombs, because the locals came and took it before it could be checked.

And for this, for trying his best to protect American soldiers, he was guilty of murder?

Didn’t the government care about American soldiers in deadly battle zones?

Or did they care more about the Taliban? It sure as hell sounded like somebody, somewhere, up the chain of command cared more about the Taliban, than about American lives. Which is why morale was sagging in the military.

Maybe none of this was real. Maybe a long nightmare. Maybe he would wake up and none of this ever happened.

But then, as Judge Brunson continued to instruct

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