Premeditated Murder

When Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. was convicted of premeditated murder in the execution-style slaying of four Iraqis and sentenced to life in prison, his mother went numb. But not for long. Leahy's family, friends, former high school classmates and fellow soldiers mounted a counterstrike for leniency. They wrote letter after letter to the top Army official reviewing the case, attesting to his sterling character and good heart.

A U.S. Army soldier convicted of murder in the 2007 killings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqis was sentenced to life in prison. Master Sgt. John Hatley, 40, will also have his rank reduced to private, forfeit all pay and receive a dishonorable discharge. He has the possibility of parole after serving 20 years. Hatley was found guilty Wednesday of premeditated murder and conspiracy in the execution-style killings of the detainees. He was found not guilty of premeditated murder in a separate incident.

This small, tight-knit community was reeling from the killing of a well-liked man who police say was shot Wednesday by his 8-year-old son, and residents are expected to turn out in droves for his funeral today. "I don't think this church is big enough to handle it all," said the Very Rev. John Paul Sauter of St. Johns Catholic Church in St. Johns, a town of about 4,000 people 170 miles northeast of Phoenix. The man, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, a co-worker who rented a room from him, were found dead inside Romero's home.

Michigan's attorney general said he had issued warrants for three teenagers accused of fatally shooting a 16-year-old boy and wounding three others near Detroit's Henry Ford High School. Two 18-year-olds and a 15-year-old boy were charged with first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of assault with intent to murder and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to state Atty. Gen. Mike Cox. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy asked Cox to take over the case because the father of one of the boys charged is a Detroit police officer, a Cox spokesman said.

A soldier from Barstow was sentenced to 100 years in prison Thursday for raping an Iraqi girl and murdering her and her family last year. Army Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement. He also was given a dishonorable discharge. Cortez pleaded guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

TURKMENISTAN * President Saparmurad A. Niyazov will largely empty Turkmenistan's prison cells by Dec. 1, granting amnesty to almost all of the former Soviet republic's 17,000 prisoners, an official said. Only prisoners who have committed crimes against the state, been convicted of premeditated murder or are repeat offenders will remain behind bars, a Justice Ministry official said. Although Niyazov has resisted moves toward democracy and economic reforms, he has favored grand gestures of mercy.

A judge in Mannheim, Germany, sentenced a U.S. soldier to life in prison for drowning her two children in the bathtub. Spc. Lillie Morgan, 22, of Marksville, La., tearfully acknowledged her guilt before the sentence was read, saying of her children, "The fact is, they are gone and I am the cause." She was convicted Thursday of premeditated murder in the Sept. 18 drowning of her children Joshua, 3, and Jazmin, 2 months, at a military housing complex in Hanau, near Frankfurt.

An Army private was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for bludgeoning to death a fellow soldier who had been rumored to be gay. Pvt. Calvin N. Glover, 18, was sentenced by the same court-martial panel that a day earlier convicted him of premeditated murder. The offense carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison; the only question before the military jury Thursday was whether he should be eligible for parole.

An Army private was found guilty of premeditated murder Wednesday for bludgeoning to death a fellow soldier in a beating prosecutors said was motivated by his hatred of homosexuals. Pvt. Calvin N. Glover, 18, was convicted of using a baseball bat to crush Pfc. Barry Winchell's skull as he slept on a cot at their barracks July 5. The military jury deliberated for little more than an hour. A sentencing hearing for Glover, who is from Sulphur, Okla., was set for today.