Navy SEAL acquitted of murder in killing of captive in Iraq
SAN DIEGO • A military jury acquitted a decorated Navy SEAL of premeditated murder Tuesday in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017.
Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was cleared of all charges except for posing for photos with the body of the captive in a verdict that is a major blow to military prosecutors. It took the jury less than two days of deliberations to reach its verdict.
Gallagher reacted with “tears of joy, emotion, freedom and absolute euphoria,” defense lawyer Marc Mukasey said.
“Suffice it to say this is a huge victory,” Mukasey said outside court. “It’s a huge weight off the Gallaghers.”
Defense lawyers said Gallagher was framed by disgruntled platoon members who fabricated the allegations to oust their chief. They said there was no physical evidence to support the allegations.
The prosecution said Gallagher’s text messages and photos incriminated him. They included photos of Gallagher holding the dead militant up by the hair and clutching a knife in his other hand.
A text message Gallagher sent while deployed said “got him with my hunting knife.”
The prosecution asserted the proof of Gallagher’s guilt was in his words, his photos and the testimony of his fellow troops, while defense lawyers called the case a “mutiny” by entitled, junior SEALs trying to oust a demanding chief and repeatedly told the jury that there was no body, no forensic evidence and no blood found on the knife.
The case gave a rare public view of a deep division in the insular and revered SEAL community. Both sides told jurors that witnesses had lied on the stand and it was their duty to push through the evidence to find the truth. Gallagher, 40, did not take the stand.
The panel of five Marines and two sailors, including a SEAL, had to weigh whether Gallagher, a 19-year veteran on his eighth deployment, went off the rails and fatally stabbed the war prisoner May 3, 2017, as a kind of trophy kill, or was the victim of allegations fabricated after the platoon returned to San Diego to stop him from getting a Silver Star and being promoted.
Under the military system, two-thirds of a jury needs to agree to convict. In Gallagher’s case, that meant five of seven jurors.
Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, left, walks with his wife, Andrea Gallagher as they arrive to military court on Naval Base San Diego, Monday, July 1, 2019, in San Diego. The trial continued Monday in the court-martial of the decorated Navy SEAL, who is accused of stabbing to death a wounded teenage Islamic State prisoner and wounding two civilians in Iraq in 2017. He has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder, charges that carry a potential life sentence. (AP Photo/Julie Watson)
Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, center, walks with his wife, Andrea, and adviser, Bernard Kerik, as they leave a military court Tuesday on Naval Base San Diego in San Diego. A military jury acquitted the decorated Navy SEAL on Tuesday of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017.