Johnny M. Horne Jr.
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Johnny M. Horne Jr. was a Staff Sergeant (demoted to the rank of Private, and dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army) in the U.S. Army. He was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, Fort Riley, Kansas. He pleaded guilty to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder after killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi teenager to "put him out of his misery."
In August 2004, U.S. forces opened fire on a group of men along a road in Al Sadr City in Baghdad. Troops from the 1st Battalion arrived on the scene to find a burning truck and casualties around it. Witnesses said that the Iraqi teen already had severe abdominal wounds and burns before the shooting. Horne claimed that he carried out a "mercy killing".
He plead guilty to one specification of murder as well as one specification of conspiracy to commit murder and received 3 years of confinement, reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of wages and a dishonorable discharge.
