The soldier accused of killing civilians in Afghanistan will face 17 charges of murder for his alleged actions. NBC's John Yang reports.
By John Yang, NBC News correspondent
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. – The charges against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales for the premeditated murder of 17 Afghan civilians include the possibility of a death sentence. But, analysts say, the chances of a death sentence actually being imposed are not high.
“We don’t have a particularly bloodthirsty military justice program,” said Eugene Fidell, the co-founder of the National Institute of Military Justice who teaches at Yale Law School.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales charged with 17 counts of murder in Afghanistan massacre
There are currently six men on death row in the military’s only maximum security prison -- euphemistically called the “Disciplinary Barracks” -- here on Fort Leavenworth. But the last execution was carried out in 1961, when an Army ammunition handler was hanged there for raping an 11-year-old girl in Austria.
It’s been so long, in fact, that the military prison no longer has the equipment needed to execute a prisoner. Instead, the sentence would be carried out at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., where Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed. The current method is lethal injection; the Leavenworth military prison had an electric chair when that was the method, but it was never used.
None of those currently on death row were convicted of crimes on the battlefield against foreign civilians; all were convicted of murders of U.S. civilians or fellow military personnel.
Death toll in Afghanistan massacre climbs to 17
The next step in the process is what’s called an Article 32 investigation, which will determine if the case should go to trial (which would be a court martial), and if so, what specific charges should be brought (they can be different from the charges originally filed), and if they should carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Analysts say that process will not be quick.
“I would expect that in a complicated case like this, it would be several months before we would see an Article 32 investigation,” said Victor Hansen, a retired Army lawyer who now teaches at New England Law in Boston. “There’s a lot of investigation the government has yet to do.”
If this becomes a death penalty case, there would have to be 12 jury members, and their guilty verdict would have to be unanimous for it to result in an execution. In other cases, as few as five jurors are required and a two-thirds vote can convict.
“If you have a capital case, we don’t cut corners,” said the Yale Law School’s Fidell.
PTSD: Having the courage to ask for help
And because Bales is an enlisted man, he could request that enlisted personnel make up at least a third of the 12 considering his fate.
Even though Bales is being held at Fort Leavenworth, proceedings may not necessarily be held here. A leading contender for the trial venue is Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Seattle, where Bales is based and near where his wife and two small children live.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
