Court-martial begins for sergeant accused of killing civilians

[n2doc]

The court martial for Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, accused ringleader of a rogue U.S. Army platoon accused of murdering civilians in Afghanistan for sport, opened Monday, with Gibbs' lawyer admitting Gibbs kept fingers from three victims as souvenirs.

But the defense lawyer, Phil Stackhouse, says Gibbs saw the killings as legitimate engagements, not premeditated murder.

Gibbs was set up for blame by fellow squad members who already have admitted their roles in the killings, Stackhouse said. In proceedings reported by the Associated Press, Stackhouse said Gibbs was misunderstood by his fellow soldiers when he talked about previous killings of civilians during an earlier deployment to Iraq.

The court martial is being held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

"On hash-filled nights, under a cloud of intoxication ... they'd talk about these things," Stackhouse said. "What you are seeing in this case is the ultimate betrayal of an infantryman."

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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/calvin-gibbs-afghanistan-kill-team-court-martial.html