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An Oklahoma Army lieutenant has been found guilty of two counts of murder in connection with a series of shootings in Afghanistan.

A jury at Fort Bragg delivered the verdict against Clint Lorance, an 82nd Airborne Division lieutenant, on Thursday evening and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, forfeiture of all pay and dismissal from the U.S. Army. Lorance, 28, was found not guilty of making a false official statement.

Prosecutors said Lorance recklessly ordered his men to open fire immediately, after three men on a motorcycle approached his patrol in southern Afghanistan in July 2012. They said this was in violation of the military's rules of engagement, which requires soldiers to hold fire unless they have evidence of hostile action or hostile intent.

Two of the men were killed and the third ran away.

Devastated mother Anna Lorance claims her son, First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, is being unfairly victimized by the military.

Attorneys for Lorance said he was trying to protect his unit, and the soldier's supporters have attacked the military for turning a war hero deployed in a volatile and remote corner of Afghanistan into a defendant.

'To put murder charges on him!' Lorance's mother, Anna Lorance, protested in an interview with The Washington Post before the verdict. 'In war, people die. When you're in a heated combat zone, you have seconds to think.'

Lorance is only the second Army officer charged with murder in a battlefield death in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His devastated mother had campaigned since the charges were filed that her son was innocent and even created a website to build support for their case.

Chizzang wrote:More reasons to ponder this...
Why anyone would willingly join our Military is evidence of
1) Clinical Insanity
2) Total desperation
3) Complete ignorance and stupidity

As we wage ridiculous wars
That have a tendency to serve only the needs of Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil
or as The former Soviet Union proved over an entire DECADE carpet bombing Afghanistan
You can't bomb people out of existence / The Soviets tried like hell for ten long years

It F*cking bankrupted them... And here we are repeating their mistakes
Good lord we're stupid

and joining the U.S. military is about the single dumbest thing a young human could do
second to gouging a rusty fork in their eye socket

AZGrizFan wrote:

Chizzang wrote:More reasons to ponder this...
Why anyone would willingly join our Military is evidence of
1) Clinical Insanity
2) Total desperation
3) Complete ignorance and stupidity

As we wage ridiculous wars
That have a tendency to serve only the needs of Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil
or as The former Soviet Union proved over an entire DECADE carpet bombing Afghanistan
You can't bomb people out of existence / The Soviets tried like hell for ten long years

It F*cking bankrupted them... And here we are repeating their mistakes
Good lord we're stupid

and joining the U.S. military is about the single dumbest thing a young human could do
second to gouging a rusty fork in their eye socket

As much as it pains me to say this, you're right. With rulings like this, there's no WAY I'd ever encourage my children to follow in my footsteps.