May 22, 2004
Military sentencing: conscientious objector=torturer
One of the reasons Mejia stayed home in the first place was the fact that he witnessed the abuse of prisoners. Now he's getting the same punishment as a convicted torturer.
Just after the last strains of a bugle call signaling the end of the day faded across this Army base, two burley MPs ushered a handcuffed Camilo Mejia out of the courthouse where he was convicted Friday of desertion and sentenced to a year in prison.Posted by Norwood at May 22, 2004 12:08 AM''Viva Camilo! Bravo Camilo,'' family and friends shouted as the MPs put him in the back seat of a patrol car, the first step on an immediate journey to a military detention facility -- mostly likely in Jacksonville, Charleston S.C. or Fort Knox, Ky., where he'll spend the next year.
In a repudiation of Mejia's efforts to defend himself by criticizing the conduct of the war in Iraq, a military jury took less than two hours to find the Miami member of the Florida National Guard guilty.
After the conviction, an unapologetic, unrepentant Mejia took the stand in his sentincing hearing Friday and told the jury he felt no shame for what he had done.
''I sit here as a free man. I will sit behind bars as a free man. I strongly believed something had to be done. I followed my conscience and provided leadership.'' Mejia, 28, said in a calm voice, looking straight at the four officers and four enlisted soldiers on the jury.
The sentence imposed on Mejia was the maximum the jury could impose for a desertion conviction, and his attorney said he will appeal.
It was the same sentence received two days earlier by Army Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, who pleaded guilty in Baghdad to maltreatment of prisoners and three other charges, and agreed to testify against other soldiers in their prisoner-abuse trials.
