The Advocate and Democrat

Joy Oakes watches a video clip of U.S. soldiers returning home from Iraq into the arms of their loved ones.

"That should have been Ray," she said.

Instead her brother, Raymond Girouard, sits in his cell, serving a 10-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

He was convicted last year for negligent homicide, conspiracy to obstruct justice and other charges in a military court martial.

But Oakes says the family has a video that if seen could bring her brother home.

The video was never seen in Girouard's court martial last year.

"No telling where we would be," Oakes said, if the military panel that convicted her brother had seen the tape.

Girouard would more than likely be home and not in a jail cell, she believes.

Girouard, a 2001 Sweetwater High graduate, was originally charged with three counts of first-degree murder and numerous other charges in 2006 after three Iraqi detainees were captured then shot dead by U.S. soldiers serving under him in a military operation May 9 about 65 miles north of Baghdad.

Three other soldiers were charged along with Girouard in connection with the fatal shootings.

Army prosecutors maintain the soldiers cut the prisoners' ties and staged a fake escape by the Iraqi prisoners so they could kill them.

Prosecutors said the Americans then conspired to cover up the crime.

His family has maintained the staff sergeant and his men were just taking orders from higher officers when the shootings occurred.

Oakes has obtained a video taken of Col. Michael Steele that she says clearly shows the pressure and the orders Girouard and other soldiers were under not to take prisoners while in Iraq.

"This is where this idea came from, not Ray," she said.

Oakes said the video was used as part of a movie, "I Am an American Soldier."

According to the speech in the video, the video was made in September 2005.

Oakes said her brother said U.S. soldiers got the same speech from Steele just before the May 2006 operation when the Iraqi prisoners were killed.

According to published reports, Steele was later reprimanded by the military for his actions before the May 2006 operations.

But Oakes wonders why if her brother is in a jail cell, why isn't Steele?

Oakes continues to work with U.S. Rep. John Duncan's office to get a full pardon for her brother or new court martial.

A representative of Duncan's office told The Advocate & Democrat the congressman has written numerous letters to the president and other officials on behalf of Girouard.

In his court martial, Girouard admitted he helped the soldiers come up with a fake story about the escape attempt to cover up the killings.

But Girouard and his family have long maintained the Sweetwater soldier did not pull the trigger in the shootings and was only protecting his men with the cover story.

Oakes said the family now has new legal counsel from the Washington D.C. area.

tommy.millsaps@advocateand democrat.com | 337-7101

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