Appeals court overturns murder conviction of Blackwater contractor

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out the first-degree murder conviction of a former Blackwater security contractor who had previously been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2007 slayings of 14 Iraqi civilians. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered a new trial for Nicholas Slatten, 33, saying the lower court that convicted the former contractor “abused its discretion” by not allowing him to be tried separately from three co-defendants.

The appeals court also ordered that the three other contractors in the case, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, are to be resentenced. They had previously been sentenced to 30 years in prison because of their conviction on charges of using government-issued firearms to commit a crime.

{mosads}The court ruled that that sentence, however, violated the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The September 2007 Nisour Square attack, which left 17 Iraqis dead and 24 people wounded, prompted intense global scrutiny of the United States’ use of security contractors in Iraq.

The four Blackwater contractors were convicted in 2014 after a lengthy trial. Slatten was the only one convicted of first-degree murder, while Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and using military weapons to carry out a violent crime.

In their 2014 trial, government lawyers cast the Nisour Square attack as a blatant ambush on Iraqi civilians. The defense argued, however, that the men began shooting after a White Kia sedan began moving toward their convoy. That type of car had been flagged by Blackwater intelligence analysts as a potential car bomb.

No evidence of an explosive was found on the vehicle.