Guilty plea entered in Iraq prison case
May 3, 2005

By The Baltimore Sun:

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Pfc. Lynndie England, the young Army reservist whose grinning, thumbs-up image came to symbolize the worst of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, told a military judge Monday that she knew the detainee abuses were wrong but went along because of peer pressure.

Offering the most ordinary explanation to a scandal that ignited international outrage, England said she posed in some of the widely circulated photographs showing humiliating abuses of Iraqi detainees to placate her then-boyfriend and others from her Maryland-based unit.

"I had a choice, but I chose to do what my friends wanted me to," England, 22, said as she pleaded guilty to mistreating detainees at the notorious Baghdad prison. "They were being very persistent and bugging me, and I was like, OK, whatever."

England became one of the most visible and polarizing figures in the prison abuse scandal when the notorious photographs of naked and hooded Iraqi detainees enduring abuses at the hands of U.S. soldiers became public a year ago.

England pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of conspiracy, four counts of mistreating detainees and one count of dereliction of duty. She now faces a maximum sentence of 11 years in military prison but is expected to face considerably less time than that under the undisclosed terms of her plea deal with prosecutors.

A jury composed of Army officers and enlisted soldiers will be seated today to recommend a sentence. England would receive the lesser punishment between what the jury recommends and what prosecutors have offered.

Source Link: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS06/505030436/1012