Decorated Navy SEAL Edward “Eddie” Gallagher was found not guilty of murder on Tuesday. Gallagher was accused of stabbing a teenage ISIS fighter as well as shooting Iraqi civilians while deployed to Iraq in 2017. The teenager that Gallagher was accused of stabbing was initially hit by an airstrike.
Gallagher was charged on seven counts. He was cleared of six and found guilty of one. He was cleared of the following charges:
- Pre-mediated murder
- Willfully discharging firearm to endanger human life
- Obstruction of justice
- Attempted murder of non-combatant
- Retaliation
- Flying a drone over a dead ISIS fighter’s body
The one charge he was found guilty of was taking a picture with the teenage ISIS fighter who was killed. The sentencing for this crime is four months in prison. Gallagher has already served that time, and more. He was arrested on September 11, 2018.
The seven individuals who levied accusations against Gallagher were members of his own platoon. They called him a brutal murderer.
Throughout the trial, Gallagher’s attorney claimed the seven accusers disliked Gallagher’s tough style. The attorney claimed that the “millennial” platoon members hated Gallagher and wanted him to be punished, despite his innocence.
The trial took a turn for the wild when a witness claimed that he killed the ISIS fighter himself. While being cross-examined, the prosecutor’s witness Corey Scott admitted to killing the ISIS fighter, saying that he held his thumb over the enemy’s tracheal tube until he quit breathing.
Scott claims it was a mercy kill. When asked why Scott killed the ISIS fighter, he said, “Because I knew he would die anyway.”
On the night of July 2, Gallagher will be set free to return home to his wife, Andrea Gallagher, who has stood by her husband every step of the way. Gallagher’s attorneys say he and his family were overjoyed with the verdict.