ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury said it had deadlocked and could not reach a verdict in the case of a military contractor accused of contributing to detainee abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago.
The mistrial came on the eighth day of jury deliberations.
The eight-member civilian jury in Alexandria failed to agree on allegations that civilian interrogators supplied to the US military at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 had conspired with soldiers to mistreat detainees in order to “soften” them for the interrogations.
The trial was the first time a U.S. jury heard lawsuits brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the 20 years since shocking photographs showing mistreatment of detainees — accompanied by smiling U.S. soldiers inflicting the abuse — were released. to the world during the US occupation of Iraq.
CACI, the military contractor based in Reston, Virginia, had argued that it was not complicit in the mistreatment of detainees. He claimed that his employees barely interacted with the three plaintiffs and that responsibility for the mistreatment lay with the government, not the company.
The jury sent a note Wednesday afternoon saying it had reached an impasse, noting in particular that it was deadlocked on a legal principle known as the “borrowed servants” doctrine.
Plaintiffs can request a new trial.
When asked if they would do so, Baher Azmy of the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of their lawyers, said: “The work we have put into this case is a fraction of what they endured as survivors of the horrors of Abu Ghraib, and “We want to honor their bravery.”
During the trial, which began on April 15, lawyers for the three plaintiffs argued that CACI was responsible for the mistreatment they suffered, although they could not prove that the company’s interrogators were the ones who directly inflicted it.
They argued that the interrogators had conspired with the military police, who inflicted the ill-treatment by ordering soldiers to “soften” detainees for interrogation.
The evidence included reports from two retired army generals, who documented the mistreatment and concluded that several CACI interrogators were complicit in the abuse.
Those reports concluded that one of the interrogators, Steven Stefanowicz, lied to investigators about his conduct, and that he likely instructed soldiers to mistreat detainees and used dogs to intimidate them during interrogations.
Stefanowicz testified for CACI at trial through a videotaped statement and denied mistreating detainees.
Trial evidence showed that CACI defended the work of another of its interrogators, Dan Johnson, even after the military called for his firing when photos of the Abu Ghraib abuses became public, and one of the images showed Johnson being interrogated. a detainee in a crouching position that Army investigators determined was an unauthorized stress position.
