(2 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: PART MUST CREDIT DANA VERKOUTEREN
ASSOCIATED PRESS – MUST CREDIT DANA VERKOUTEREN
Alexandria, Virginia – 16 April 2024
1. Various STILLS, artist sketches depict Salah Al-Ejaili, foreground with glasses, a former Al-Jazeera journalist, before the U.S. District Court
POOL
ARCHIVE: Abu Ghraib, Iraq – 17 May 2004
++4X3 ASPECT RATIO++
2. Pan along line of prisoners with heads not visible
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Baghdad, Iraq – Exact date unknown, 2003
3. STILL, this late 2003 photo obtained by The Associated Press shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in the Abu Ghraib prison Photo ID: 24101009267129
POOL
ARCHIVE: Abu Ghraib, Iraq – 17 May 2004
++4X3 ASPECT RATIO++
4. Wide shot, pan of Abu Ghraib prison
5. Soft focus shot through fence of detainees
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Arlington, Virginia — 30 June 2008
6. STILL photo of CACI International Inc. building, Photo ID:080630018812
POOL
ARCHIVE: Abu Ghraib, Iraq – 17 May 2004
++4X3 ASPECT RATIO++
7. Interior shot of soldiers on guard
8. Interior of prison, guard walks past
9. Prisoners putting hands between bars
10. Low level shot of prison hallway
11. Pan of exterior of cellblock
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Baghdad, Iraq – 22 June 2004
12. STILL, a detainee in an outdoor solitary confinement cell talks with a military police officer at the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, Photo ID: 24101009262033
STORYLINE:
A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury said it was deadlocked and could not reach a verdict in the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq two decades ago.
The mistrial came in the jury’s eighth day of deliberations. The deliberations went far longer than the trial itself.
The eight-member civil jury in Alexandria deadlocked on accusations the civilian interrogators who were supplied to the U.S. Army at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 had conspired with soldiers there to abuse detainees as a means of “softening them up” for questioning.
The trial was the first time a U.S. jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the 20 years since photos of detainee mistreatment — accompanied by smiling U.S. soldiers inflicting the abuse — shocked the world during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Reston, Virginia-based CACI had argued that it wasn’t complicit in the detainees’ abuse. It said that its employees had minimal interaction with the three plaintiffs in the case and that any liability for their mistreatment belonged to the government, not CACI.
Multiple jurors told The Associated Press that a majority of the jury sided with the plaintiffs, but they declined to give an exact numerical breakdown among the eight-member panel.
The jury sent out a note Wednesday afternoon saying it was deadlocked, and indicating in particular that it was hung up on a legal principle known as the “borrowed servants” doctrine.
CACI, as one of its defenses, has argued it shouldn’t be liable for any misdeeds by its employees if they were under the control and direction of the Army.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers tried to bar CACI from making that argument at trial, but Brinkema allowed the jury to consider it.
Both sides argued about the scope of the doctrine. Fundamentally, though, if CACI could prove its interrogators were under the command and control of the Army at the time any misconduct occurred, then the jury was instructed to find in favor of CACI.
The plaintiffs can seek a retrial.
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