Court Rejects a Murder Conviction and Voids 3 Sentences in Blackwater Case<br />4, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday threw out the lengthy sentences for three former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors<br />and ordered a new trial for a fourth man involved in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad.<br />The four former Blackwater contractors had asked the court to overturn the convictions entirely, arguing<br />that the Justice Department had no jurisdiction to bring charges for possible crimes committed in Iraq.<br />The machine-gun charge was always contentious, even inside the Justice Department, where some prosecutors believed it was unfair to add an extra penalty for using a weapon<br />that the United States government required them to carry.<br />agent once called it the "My Lai massacre of Iraq." Three men, Dustin L. Heard, Evan S. Liberty<br />and Paul A. Slough, were convicted in 2014 of voluntary manslaughter and using a machine gun to carry out a violent crime.<br />Federal law gives the Justice Department the ability to bring charges against contractors<br />traveling with or supporting the mission of the Defense Department.<br />Mr. Slatten had faced manslaughter charges, but prosecutors missed a filing deadline in his case<br />and inadvertently let the statute of limitations expire, leaving them with the choice of prosecuting him for murder or dropping the charges.
