President Trump has granted a full pardon to former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who was convicted by a military court in 2009 for killing an Iraqi prisoner suspected of being part of al-Qaida. Behenna was initially sentenced to 25 years; he was released on parole in 2014.
Behenna, 35, was found guilty of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone for shooting Ali Mansur Mohamed in 2008. But he claimed he acted in self-defense, and as the White House announced his pardon, it also said a U.S. Army appellate court had "noted concern about how the trial court had handled Mr. Behenna's claim of self-defense."
Mansur was killed during questioning about a roadside explosion that had killed members of a platoon under Behenna's command. In military court and in an interview last year, Behenna acknowledged that he had decided to question Mansur on his own, weeks after the Iraqi was initially released due to a lack of direct evidence that could tie him to the explosion.