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A former sergeant within the US Military Nationwide Guard who was convicted of a battle crime for fatally capturing an Afghan civilian within the head now works on navy coverage in Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) workplace.
Derrick Miller, who served eight years in a navy jail for the premeditated homicide of a civilian, started working as a legislative aide for Gaetz in Sept. 2022.
Miller’s battle crime occurred in japanese Afghanistan in September of 2010, based on navy prosecutors, who argued throughout a three-day court-martial that he took one other soldier’s weapon, straddled Atta Mohammed on the bottom after which shot him.
The sergeant’s protection lawyer Charles Gittins mentioned in opening statements that Miller shot Mohammed in self-defense after the 60-year-old electrician wandered by a US defensive perimeter and reached for the 9mm pistol Miller was holding as he interrogated him.
Nevertheless, a witness within the case, a fellow Guardsman, testified that he heard Miller threatening to kill Mohammed — who was on his again — if he didn't inform the reality. And a navy prosecutor mentioned throughout closing arguments that instantly after he fired a bullet into Mohammed’s cranium, Miller acknowledged, “I shot him. He was a liar.”
Miller advised the Military Occasions in 2019 that inside an hour after the capturing, his unit was attacked, suggesting that Mohammed could have been a Taliban scout.
In 2011, Miller was sentenced to life in jail after being convicted of premeditated homicide of a civilian.
In April 2018, Miller’s case was introduced earlier than a clemency board and his sentence was lowered to twenty years.
After serving eight years on the US Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, MIller was paroled in February 2019.
A spokesman for Gaetz advised The Publish on Tuesday that Miller was “wrongfully convicted.”
“We proudly stand with our Army Legislative Assistant Derrick Miller. He was wrongfully convicted and served our nation with honor,” the spokesman mentioned in a press release.
“Over the course of practically a decade, members of Congress, a number of advocacy teams, and over 16,000 people on a petition have all signaled their assist for clearing his title and recognizing him as harmless of prices imposed by a weaponized navy injustice system below President Obama,” the assertion continued.
“Mr. Miller advises our workplace on many issues, together with methods to make the navy justice system according to our constitutional ideas and values,” Gaetz’s spokesman mentioned.
This isn’t Miller’s first job on Capitol Hill.
He beforehand labored as a navy adviser for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) from July 2019 to September of final yr.
Miller didn't reply to The Publish’s request for remark.
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