Afghanistan abuse inquiry cites 26 American soldiers

WASHINGTON – Army investigators have recommended bringing abuse charges against 26 American soldiers stemming from a probe into the deaths of two detainees in Afghanistan in December 2002, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

The cases involve two deaths and other incidents at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan charges, recommended by Army investigators and prosecutors after an investigation that took well over a year, range from negligent homicide to dereliction of duty and failure to report an offense, two Army officers familiar with the case said. One sergeant has already been charged, officials said. The Army expects to begin filing charges against soldiers in the Afghanistan allegations in two to three weeks.

Kerry would scrap military tribunals

Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards said Tuesday that a John Kerry administration would scrap the military commissions created by President Bush to try suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and would instead establish a new system modeled on military courts-martial.

Terror convictions in jeopardy

The Justice Department has asked a judge to throw out the convictions of a suspected terror cell in Detroit because prosecutors failed to turn over several pieces of evidence, reversing course in a case the Bush administration once hailed as a major victory in the war on terrorism, legal sources said Tuesday. The department said it supports the Detroit defendants’ request for a new trial and would no longer pursue charges of material support of terrorism. That means the defendants at most would only face fraud charges at a new trial, the legal sources said.

Georgia: Inmate free after 17 years

A man wrongly convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery was freed Tuesday after 17 years in prison, exonerated by a new test of DNA evidence and helpful prosecutors. Clarence Harrison, 44, sentenced to life in prison in 1987 on charges of sexually assaulting a hospital worker, walked out of a Decatur courthouse surrounded by ecstatic friends and family.

Pennsylvania: Family killer to die

A jury sentenced a Middletown man to death Tuesday for killing his estranged wife and two daughters on Christmas Eve 2002, less than a month before the daughters planned to testify that he had sexually molested them for years. Ernest Wholaver Jr. was convicted Monday of murdering his wife, Jean, 43, and their daughters, Victoria, 20, and Elizabeth, 15. Police found the three shot dead in their Middletown home on Christmas Day. Victoria’s 9-month-old daughter was found crying next to her mother’s body.

Utah: Kidnapper will stand trial

A judge in Salt Lake City on Tuesday found a homeless man competent to stand trial in the kidnapping of teenager Elizabeth Smart after the man’s lawyers decided not to contest the issue. Brian Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, 58, are charged with kidnapping Smart from her bedroom at knifepoint in 2002 and keeping her for nine months.

California: Dog found victim’s scent

A search dog handler testified in Redwood City on Tuesday that her canine picked up Laci Peterson’s scent at the marina where Scott Peterson launched what he says was a solo fishing trip the day his wife vanished. Prosecutors allege that Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then drove to the marina and dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. Her remains and those of the couple’s fetus washed ashore in April 2003 not far from where Peterson launched his fishing trip.

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