U.S. Master Sergeant John Hatley murdered four Iraqi prisoners execution style, a military court ruled Wednesday. The eight-member panel said that after a 2007 firefight with a set of Iraqi insurgents, Hatley acted as “judge, jury and executioner” when he blindfolded the prisoners, shot them one after the other, and dumped their bodies in a nearby canal. Two soldiers in Hatley’s unit were convicted in connection to the killings earlier this year and two pleaded guilty and were sentenced to jail last year. If convicted on all counts of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, Hatley could face life in prison. (AP)New Jersey police may be misusing immigration inquiry rules by using racial profiling to pull over Latino drivers, passengers, and crime victims, according to a study by Seton Hall Law School. The study cites 69 cases over the past nine months in which people being questioned by police were asked about their immigration status for no apparent reason besides their appearance. In some cases, suspects were arrested after they were unable to produce evidence that they were legal U.S. residents, and later passed on to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being held for weeks or months. (New York Times)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=143762