FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- A military panel at Fort Campbell has begun deliberating a new sentence for a soldier convicted of covering up the slayings of Iraqi citizens by U.S. soldiers.
The panel began deliberations Wednesday after Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard of Sweetwater, Tenn., testified that if the panel gives him a punitive discharge, he will lose medical benefits he needs because he is HIV positive and struggles with substance abuse.
Last year an appeals court tossed out negligent homicide convictions against him and ordered a new sentencing hearing for his remaining convictions related to the cover-up.
Two soldiers in his squad pleaded guilty to shooting the detainees during a raid in Iraq in 2006. Girouard testified that he did not order the killings but lied to try to cover up the crime.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
