Sergeant Robert Bales Will Face Seventeen Counts of Murder

Sergeant Robert Bales, who is accused of massacring Afghan civilians two weeks ago, will be charged tomorrow with 17 counts of murder, 6 counts of attempted murder, and 6 accounts of aggravated assault. Bales, a married father of two, is currently being held at a military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. He will be tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The New York Times predicts the trial could last years, especially if the death penalty is considered, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said “could be a consideration.”

In an interview earlier this week, Bales’s attorney, John Henry Browne, said, “I’m not putting the war on trial, but the war is on trial.”

Sergeant Robert Bales Will Face Seventeen Counts of Murder