The jury has sentenced Charles Graner to ten years in prison. He leaves court, in shackles, still smiling.

Parole and clemency are available to Graner, to be determined by the Army Clemency and Parole Board. Regulations as of 1998 are available here (pdf.) For sentences betweeen 10 and 20 years, the prisoner comes up for parole after two years and is reviewed every year thereafter. Guidelines seem to suggest he would not be paroled before serving 1/3 of his sentence. The criteria or salient factors for parole are in section 3-2.

The military jury began hearing sentencing arguments Friday night in Charles Graner's prisoner abuse trial. First up were his parents:

"I bear no malice for you," Graner's father said. "When he came home, we were going to go fishing. He was going tell me about the war. Now, that fishing is going to be postponed. For how long, it's going to be up to you. "I'd get down on my knees and beg to you, but my son wouldn't let me do it."

Graner's mother, Irma, said she will always consider her son a hero. "He's kind, gentle, will do anything for anybody," she said. "He's not the one that he's being made out to be."

The hearing resumes Saturday morning, and Graner will testify.

The Justice Department has disclosed it is conducting an investigation of F.B.I. agents regarding abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo. The Pentagon announced last week that it had launched a similar investigation.

The decisions to investigate emanate from the FBI memos obtained by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act. The ACLU describes the memos here.

After five hours of deliberation, a ten member military jury found Abu Ghraib guard Charles Graner guilty of abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Graner stood at attention and looked straight ahead without expression as each verdict was read. His parents, Charles and Irma Graner, held hands tightly as they listened.

The jury begins deliberating his sentence this evening. He can get up to 15 1/2 years.

The charges he was convicted of include Assault, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty. He was found guilty on all counts, except that one assault count was downgraded to battery.

Each side will present witnesses during the sentencing phase, and Graner may testify. He should. He needs to tell his side of the story.

Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban was sentenced to a year in jail today after being convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder at a court martial. Last month, another soldier, Johnny Horne, was sentenced to three years for the incident. One more soldier is awaiting trial. Here's what happened:

The charges relate to the Aug. 18 killing of a 16-year-old Iraqi male found in a burning truck with severe abdominal wounds sustained during clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City, an impoverished neighborhood that was the scene of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite rebels loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. A criminal investigator had said during an earlier hearing that the soldiers decided to kill him to "put him out of his misery."

The teen was 16-year-old Qassim Hassan, who was working with relatives collecting rubbish. The Geneva Convention prohibits shooting wounded persons. Here's more on the case.

Closing arguments were this morning in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse trial of Charles Graner. The jury received copies of e-mails Graner sent to family and friends, joking about the pain he inflicted:

[Prosecutor] Graveline used some of Graner's own e-mails as evidence of how much he enjoyed the pain he inflicted on detainees. In one e-mail, he described beating on prisoners as "a good upper-body workout, but hard on the hands." The e-mail messages were given to jurors Tuesday. The New York Times, which said it got them from a person close to the defense, reported that they were sent to Graner's family and friends, including his young children.

"The guys give me hell for not getting any pictures while I was fighting this guy," said the message, titled "just another dull night at work," with the photograph of the howling, bound, bleeding detainee, according to the Times. The paper also reported that Graner responded to an e-mail message about a Take Your Children to Work Day event, "how about send a bastard to hell day?" attaching a photograph of a detainee's head bloodied beyond recognition.

Human Rights Watch has issued its annual report. It calls for prosecution of U.S. officials over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse and of the Sudanese Government for Darfur, and asks Bush to appoint a special prosecutor:

"The vitality of global human rights depends on a firm response to each -- on stopping the Sudanese government's slaughter in Darfur and on fully investigating and prosecuting all those responsible for torture and mistreatment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo," it said.

Seven members of a U.S. military unit posted at Abu Ghraib have been charged with crimes since pictures of piles of naked men and others held on a leash were leaked last year. In addition the U.S. military has charged or imposed administrative punishments on dozens of servicemen accused of abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Charles Graner did not take the stand after all in his trial on charges he abused Iraqi Abu Ghraib prisoners. Why did his lawyer change his mind about putting him on the stand/

"We came in with a checklist of the things we wanted to present to the jury," said a statement from Graner's lawyer, Guy Womack. "Once we accomplished that, there was no reason to continue. We presented all the evidence we wanted."

Today's chief witness for the defense was former soldier Megan Ambuhl, who also pleaded guilty to abuse and also was romantically involved with Graner. Closing arguments are tomorrow.

Financial Times reports on Charles Graner's defense and says it crumbled today when the Court wouldn't allow the jury to hear from his "expert." According to other foreign news accounts of the trial , Thomas Archambault, a "self-styled prisoner restraint expert" told the judge outside the presence of the jury that Graner used "good foresight" and that the stacking of prisoners was a "creative technique."

A witness at the trial of the alleged Abu Ghraib prison abuse ringleader hailed the stacking up of naked detainees as "a creative technique" and said he too would have photographed it. The strongest testimony in favor of the military policeman was not presented before the jury as the judge ruled after hearing it that it was not relevant.

Thomas Archambault, a self-styled prisoner restraint expert, said Graner, had "used good foresight" in the way he dealt with the detainees. He said piling the naked prisoners on top of each other was "a very creative technique," but admitted it did not appear in any training manual. In questioning the witness, defense lawyer Guy Womack referred to the human stack as "a cheerleader pyramid."

An editorial in the Houston Chronicle discusses Charles Graner's defense attorney Guy Womack,saying we should not discount his powers of persuasion, and gives some examples from his colorful past:

As an assistant U.S. attorney in Houston in 1996, he helped market a device to school districts and law enforcement agencies called the Quadro Tracker. It was advertised as a high-tech divining rod that used chips to activate an antenna that supposedly could track down missing people and discover drugs, weapons or other contraband. More than 1,000 of the devices were sold around the country for as much as $8,000 each.

In reality, the device was simply an antenna attached to an empty plastic box. A federal judge ordered the manufacture of the Tracker halted, and the FBI denounced it as a hoax. Prosecutors investigated Womack's role in marketing the device and he eventually resigned his federal post and paid a $5,000 settlement while denying any wrongdoing.

After giving another example, the Chronicle concludes:

Before military prosecutors chuckle at Womack's tactics, they might consider this: A lawyer who could market $8,000 divining rods to street-smart lawmen just might be able to sell Specialist Graner as a cheerleader in uniform to a military jury.

[hat tip KMC)

This can't be good for Charles Graner, who began the defense portion of his trial today on charges he abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. His defense witnesses are scoring points for the prosecution:

Army Spc. Charles Graner had a habit of disobeying orders from his military police superiors while serving as a guard at Abu Ghraib prison, according to testimony Wednesday from the first witness for the defense.

Master Sgt. Brian Lipinski, then the top noncommissioned officer in the 372nd Military Police Company, said under cross-examination that Graner wore his hair too long, altered his uniform in violation of regulations and refused to stay away from Pfc. Lynndie England despite being repeatedly told to do so.

"He just didn't like to follow orders," said prosecutor Maj. Michael Holley asked Lipinski. "That's true, sir," Lipinski said. "He wants to do his own thing?" Holley said. "Yes, sir," the sergeant responded.

It gets worse for Graner:

Following our morning update, the Government presented the videotaped testimony of Iraqi prisoner Hussein Muttar. More of the same, except that Muttar added that the torture by the Graner gang was worse than the torture administered by Saddam Hussein.

The prosecution has rested. The defense begins presenting its case tomorrow, presumably including Graner's testimony.

Graner, meanwhile, is still yukking it up outside of court. Here's a photo of Graner and his parents leaving Court during a recess today.