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.
This ruling is simply one MORE reason...