ABOUT THE CASE
In 2004, Sergeant Williams was the first U.S. servicemember charged with a “war crime” offense during combat operations in Iraq when placed in a “Lone Survivor-Like” situation (i.e. He had to decide whether to kill or release an enemy combatant on a live hostile battlefield).
- Williams encountered an armed insurgent with a smoking gun on the battlefield who had just engaged U.S. Soldiers in intense and violent house-to-house combat.
- Due to the situation and the mission, Williams’ squad was unable to take prisoners.
- If Williams allowed the insurgent to go free, he would place fellow Americans at risk.
- Williams, concerned for the lives of U.S. Soldiers, killed the captured enemy combatant.
- One of Williams’ Soldiers faced a similar situation and also killed an enemy combatant.
- The U.S. Government convicted Williams of two counts of murder.
- Williams’ Soldiers sustained zero casualties.
Williams’ unit was involved in intense combat in Sadr City, Iraq. They were fighting an enemy insurgent force, controlled by Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which used vicious guerilla tactics against US and allied forces in the area.
Williams, serving in a Staff Sergeant billet due to his experience as a Ranger, was ordered to find and kill the enemy.
While leading his squad in house-to-house combat, Williams entered a fortified compound and encountered an enemy combatant who was sweaty, dirty, and armed with an AK-47 which had a hot barrel from shooting at US forces.
Due to the rapid operational tempo and the fact that, if his squad lagged, he would jeopardize the flank of the adjacent squad, he had to make real-time life, expedient, of death decisions and was unable to take prisoners.
Williams was faced with an immediate and challenging decision – kill the enemy combatant he had captured or turn him loose and perhaps have this enemy combatant kill more US Soldiers, including one of Williams’ own men.
Unlike the decision made by the U.S. Navy SEALs serving with Marcus Luttrell of “Lone Survivor,” where all but one SEAL was killed after releasing detainees, Williams chose to kill the enemy combatant to protect his Soldiers.
Later, in a similar situation, Williams told one of his Soldiers, “do your job.” That Soldier also killed a captured enemy combatant.
Under Williams’ leadership all of Williams’s Soldiers returned home safely without sustaining any physical casualties.
STATUS OF CASE
- The U.S. Army placed Williams in pretrial confinement for 239 days in Kuwait. Half this time was spent in solitary confinement in an 8’x8’ wooden box surrounded by barbed wire where he had to urinate and defecate in a water bottle.
- His confinement made it nearly impossible for him to assist in his own defense.
- His trial, which took place in Kuwait, made it even more difficult for him to defend himself, secure witnesses who had returned to America, or obtain an experienced civilian attorney.
- Instead, Williams was provided an inexperienced Army JAG who pressured Williams to plead guilty.
- In 2005, Williams pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison at the USDB, Fort Leavenworth.
- In May 2014, six years ago, with the help of UAP, Williams was granted parole and released.
Consistent with the President’s vow to end the “endless war” in Iraq —
WILLIAMS IS RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES INVOKE HIS STATUTORY POWERS UNDER 10 USC SECTIONS 822 AND 860 TO DISAPPROVE THE FINDINGS AND THE SENTENCE OR PROVIDE A FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL PARDON.
WHO IS MICHAEL WILLIAMS?
Williams is a man of impeccable character, who joined the Army when he was 19, became an elite U.S. Army Ranger, and, after his four-year enlistment, returned to civilian life. However, in response to the attacks of 9/11, Williams re-enlisted to protect his fellow citizens. Williams performed well above that of his peers. According to those who served with him, “the mission and his Soldiers” were paramount. Williams now lives in Tennessee, has a Daughter, is engaged to a wonderful woman with three children, and is the senior partner at BioServ, a medical supply company. He is also pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering.
