Town rallies behind convicted soldier

"None of us really know what these soldiers face when they are over there, the stress and strain they are under," said Debbie Leahy, of Downers Grove, Ill. "I am not embarrassed by what my son did. He did what he believed he had to do to survive."

In March 2007, Leahy and his Army unit were driving toward a remote village west of Baghdad when they came under fire. They couldn’t tell where the shots came from, but they spotted four men and gave chase. Soldiers caught up with them at a nearby house and found weapons there.

Soldiers blindfolded the Iraqis, tied their hands behind their backs and took them to a remote canal on the outskirts of Baghdad, Leahy would say later. Then, according to a transcript of the soldiers’ trial, they lined up the detainees, shot them in the back of the head and let their bodies fall into the canal.

"After I fired my weapon, the detainee that I shot fell back on me," Leahy testified.

"I saw the detainee to the right of me flinch and turn after he heard the shot. And my weapon was pointed at him. . . . I then pulled the trigger and it hit him on the left side of his face, from the ear forward. . . . The second detainee I shot fell to the ground and he was making a gurgling, moaning noise."

One of Leahy’s superiors finished off the man with a shot to the chest, military prosecutors told jurors. Soldiers testified that one officer said the killings were in retaliation for the deaths of the two soldiers from their unit.

Capt. Derrick Grace argued that the soldiers knew they were violating the law. "A case of premeditated murder does not get much clearer than that," the prosecutor told the nine-member jury.

Leahy, 28, was convicted in February and sentenced to life, with eligibility for parole after 20 years. Four codefendants, including two superiors, also were convicted or pleaded guilty.

Master Sgt. John E. Hatley, 40, of Texas was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo, 27, of North Carolina pleaded guilty to the same offense and received 35 years with the possibility of parole. Two other soldiers, convicted of lesser crimes, received lighter sentences. All were from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment.

To Iraqis, reports of abuse and extrajudicial killings by American soldiers are met with outrage and demands for severe punishment.

But to Leahy’s friends and family in Illinois, his sentence was far too harsh. To them, the incident illustrates how soldiers in the heat of combat can confuse right and wrong.

Leahy, known as "Mickey," had a typical suburban upbringing, friends and family say. He played football and baseball in high school, graduating in 1999.

By the time he joined the Army in 2003, he had become interested in medicine and thought the military could give him the structure and training to make it a career.

He had planned to transfer to an Army Rangers training school in Georgia and later become a physician’s assistant in Texas, family members said. He was wrapping up his second tour in Iraq at the time of the incident.

Now, he is imprisoned at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.

But his friends and family live in hope — and at least some of their wishes have come true.