New testimony may free officer convicted of ordering a beating

[unhappycamper]

New testimony may free officer convicted of ordering a beating
By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, February 4, 2008

Staff Sgt. Stephen Burley has been doing time.

But did he do the crime?

Burley, of the Vicenza, Italy-based 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, was convicted last May of ordering a so-called “code red” — telling three of his soldiers to beat up an underachieving member of their unit.

At Burley’s court-martial, the three soldiers testified that he ordered the beating, and he was sentenced to two years in prison. But for the past eight months from behind a prison wall, Burley has maintained he was framed.

“Three kids messed up and did something they should not have, but at the time thought it would be funny,” Burley wrote in a December letter to Stars and Stripes. “After they got caught, they went into self-preservation mode and said that I told them to do it.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52184