Some of you may know that I (Gary Mauney) represented six families that were victims of the unlawful shootings by members of a Blackwater convoy that took place in Iraq on September 16, 2007. I take issue with the wisdom of the president's pardons of the Blackwater shooters who were convicted - several years ago - by a jury of their peers in the United States. The power of the pardon exists to correct an injustice. The president's pardons of the Blackwater shooters, instead, revives, seems to approve of, and perpetuates injustice.
It is important to know that not every member of the Blackwater convoy was a wrongdoer. Some members of the convoy, in fact, tried to stop the shooting after it started. But the shooting did not stop until after innocent people were unjustly killed and injured.
Immediately after the incident, the US Army investigated. Shortly after that, the FBI's counter-terrorism unit investigated. Each determined that the shootings were unjustified and were unprovoked. The victims were innocent. Innocent civilians who just happened to be passing through the traffic circle known as Nisour Square on that day
We successfully prosecuted the civil case against Blackwater in the state and federal courts of North Carolina. We tried to keep the politics out of it. I was proud of our justice system. My law partners at the time, Paul Dickinson and Jim Roberts, were instrumental to the success of the case.
What follows was an excellent post on Twitter, written recently by one of my colleagues, that chronicles some of what happened. As these postings show, our clients were real people, who had a right to live long and happy lives. Unfortunately, because of what happened that day of September 16, 2007, they did not.
