England's Abu Ghraib guilty plea dismissed

A US military judge tonight threw out Private First Class Lynndie England’s guilty plea to Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, saying he was not convinced she knew that her actions were wrong at the time.

Colonel James Pohl entered a plea of not guilty for England to a charge of conspiring with Private Charles Graner to maltreat detainees at the Baghdad-area prison.

The action came after Graner testified at England’s sentencing hearing that pictures he took of her holding a naked prisoner on a leash at Abu Ghraib were meant to be used as a legitimate training aid for other guards.

When England pleaded guilty on Monday, she told the judge at Fort Hood, Texas she knew the pictures were being taken purely for the amusement of the guards.

Col Pohl said the two statements could not be reconciled.

“You can’t have a one-person conspiracy,” the judge said before he declared a mistrial and dismissed the jury.

The mistrial for England, a 22-year-old reservist who appeared in some of the most notorious photographs from the 2003 abuse scandal, means the case gets kicked back to the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding.

Under military law, the judge could formally accept England’s guilty plea only if he was convinced she knew at the time that what she was doing was illegal.

By rejecting the plea to the conspiracy charge, Pohl cancelled that plea agreement.

The military grand jury proceeding, known as an Article 32, had been conditionally waived in this case as long as the plea agreement was in effect.