Somehow it seems living a "normal life" is something you should have to GIVE UP after being found guilty of assault, maltreatment, maiming and making a false official statement.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8C47ARG0.htmlAn Army reservist from Ohio expressed relief that he avoided a prison sentence after being convicted of abusing a detainee who later died in Afghanistan.
"I'm just glad to be with my family," Pfc. Willie V. Brand told The Cincinnati Enquirer for its Sunday editions. "It's just a big load off my shoulders."
Brand, 27, was convicted Wednesday at Fort Bliss, Texas of assault, maltreatment, maiming and making a false official statement in an attack on a detainee known as Dilawar in December 2002. He was acquitted of charges that he abused a second detainee.
Prosecutors had sought a 10 year sentence and a dishonorable discharge, but Brand was instead reduced in rank to private — the Army's lowest pay grade. Brand told the newspaper in a cell phone interview from Texas that he feared he would have to go to prison.
"I was hearing they were going to be hard on me and stuff and that I was going to be here for a while," he said.