Edward L. Richmond Jr.

Private First Class Edward L. Richmond was an U.S. Army soldier serving in Iraq who was charged with the unpremeditated murder of Muhamad Husain Kadir, an Iraqi prisoner. Richmond was convicted of manslaughter, and was sentenced to reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay, dishonorable discharge, and three years in prison.

Richmond was a member of the Headquarters Company, of the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment (United States), a unit of the 25th Infantry Division (United States)'s 2nd Brigade Combat Team. On February 28 2004 Richmond's unit had an Iraqi village, near Taal Al Jai, under observation. Sergeant Jeffrey Waruch described observing Kadir, a cowherd, with Richmond. He testified that Richmond requested permission to shoot Kadir, even though Kadir appeared unarmed.The orders from Captain Carpenter to Waruch at 10:00 February 27, 2004 were to shoot any male leaving the village.

They were supposed to be Fedayeen and carded members of Saddam's group in the village. Waruch made detailed notes in his note book so that he would not rebrief the wrong orders to Richmond and several more members of the platoon for the mission.Their unit was then ordered to detain all the males in an Iraqi village. Waruch bound Kadir's hands with a zip-tie handcuffs. When Waruch lead Kadir away, Kadir stumbled, and Richmond then shot him in the back of the head.

Richmond claimed that he didn't know Kadir was bound, and he thought Kadir was lunging to attack Waruch. But two other witnesses testified that they too had heard Richmond talking about how we wanted to kill Kadir prior to the shooting.

Richmond did not directly state he wanted to kill Kadir, he asked for verification of orders from Waruch, as was stated in the court records of trial.On February 18, 2004 Sgt Jeffrey D. Waruch shot a mother and two daughters, Entistar, 13 at the time was "surrendering with her brother Samir" this was written in a Second Legal Review by Major Samuel Schubert the prosecutor in U.S. vs Richmond, and the mother and 15 year old sister was shot in the back running away.On October 3, 2005, Richmond's lawyer, Charles Gittins filed an appeal based on the theory that Waruch himself was under investigation for the shooting of three Iraqi civilians, a mother and her two daughters, resulting in the death of one of the girls.

External links

* [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6639.htm Copy of a Honolulu Star Bulletin article about Richmond's trial] .
* [http://www.uniraq.org/newsroom/story.asp?ID=1071 Account of the incident from "UNAMI: The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq"] .
* [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/275BE069-4DA9-4321-9749-DD18AF5148B0.htm Al Jazeerha account of the incident] .
* [http://www.opednews.com/stjacques_081604_military_criminal.htm OpEdNews account of the incident] .
* [http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051003/NEWS08/510030336/1018/NEWS Schofield soldier filing appeal] , Honolulu Advertiser, October 3, 2005