A US military judge has asked if Army Reservist Lynndie England, a key figure in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, wanted to withdraw her guilty plea after a witness appeared to indicate she might have trouble telling right from wrong.
A low-ranking clerk, England, 22, admitted guilt on Monday to seven charges stemming from the 2003 abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, which was documented in photographs of naked prisoners, including one in which she held a leash around a detainee's neck. The scandal shook the credibility of the US military as it faced international criticism over the Iraq invasion.
Judge Colonel James Pohl had accepted England's plea only after questioning her repeatedly as to whether she thought her actions were wrong at the time.
At one point on Monday, England said she posed with the leashed prisoner because her then-lover, Charles Graner, sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection to the abuse scandal, had told her to do so.
"I assumed it was OK because he was an MP (military policeman). He had the background as a corrections officer and with him being older than me I thought he knew what he was doing."
That issue appeared to have passed until Pohl temporarily dismissed the military jury of six soldiers, all Iraq war veterans, midway through the testimony of a school psychiatrist who tested England as she was growing up in West Virginia.
Thomas Denne testified said she had suffered from learning disabilities from a young age. With such troubles, "confusion can be a main part of your life," he said.
In a statement from prison custody, Graner said, "Knowing what happened in Iraq, it was very upsetting to see Lynn plead guilty to her charges."
"I would hope by doing so she will have a better chance at a good sentence," Graner, the father of England's baby, said in a handwritten statement to reporters.
Graner is in prison after his January conviction on abuse charges, but has been allowed to travel to Fort Hood before expected testimony today.
England once faced up to 38 years in prison and her plea deal gives her an 11-year maximum. Legal sources said the deal's actual maximum sentence, which has not been made public, was significantly less.
England will serve either that plea deal sentence or one decided by the jury, whichever is less.
On what could be the last day of sentencing testimony today, witnesses may include Graner, his ex-wife and England's mother. England herself could also choose to testify.
Six other soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib prison abuses have already pleaded guilty. No high-ranking officials have been charged in the US abuse scandal despite similar allegations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.