Derrick Miller (born 1983/1984) is a former

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

sman

sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

who was sentenced in 2011 to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

with the chance of

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

for the murder of an Afghan civilian during a battlefield interrogation. Miller is colloquially associated with a group of U.S. military personnel convicted of war crimes known as the Leavenworth 10. After being incarcerated for eight years, Miller was granted parole and released in 2019. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Justice for Warriors Caucus and Military Adviser to Texas Republican U.S. Representative

Louie Gohmert Louis Buller Gohmert Jr. (; born August 18, 1953) is an American attorney, politician, and former judge who was the U.S. representative from Texas's 1st congressional district from 2005 to 2023. Gohmert is a Republican and was part of the Tea ...

Early life

Miller's parents are his mother Reneé Myers, and his step-father Craig Myers. He was raised in

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Maryland, second-largest ...

, attended Frederick High School, and later lived in

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's List of municipalities in Maryland, sixth-most popu ...

. He was a security guard at

Fort Detrick Fort Detrick () is a United States Army Futures Command installation located in Frederick, Maryland. Fort Detrick was the center of the U.S. biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969. Since the discontinuation of that program, it has hosted m ...

in Maryland. Miller has two daughters, who live in Maryland.

Military career

Miller was a Maryland Army National Guard sergeant.Joshua Hersh (May 29, 2019)
"Meet the Man Pushing the Trump Administration to Pardon Combat Veterans,"
''Vice''. He joined the National Guard in 2006, volunteered for three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and had top performance reviews. His wife said he was given

Army Commendation Medal The Commendation Medal is a mid-level Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, United States military decoration presented for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service. Each branch of the United States Armed Forces issu ...

s and

Army Achievement Medal The Achievement Medal is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The Achievement Medal was first proposed as a means to recognize outstanding achievement or meritorious service of military personnel who were not eligible to rece ...

s for his military service.

Shooting

On his third tour of duty, for which he had volunteered, Miller was assigned to a

Connecticut National Guard The Connecticut Military Department is a state agency of the government of Connecticut. Its primary components are the Connecticut Army National Guard, the Connecticut Air National Guard, and four companies of the state militia. The Military D ...

unit, and attached to the US Army's

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division (military), division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault military operation, operations. The 101st is designed to plan, coordinat ...

. Miller was on a combat mission in a

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

-controlled area in Masamute Bala, in

Laghman Province Laghman (Persian language, Persian/Pashto: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large numbe ...

, in north-eastern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

on September 26, 2010. He was warned that day that his unit's base had been penetrated. An Afghan man suspected of being an

enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a term for a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict, used by the U.S. government and media during the War on Terror. Usually enemy combatants are members of t ...

was brought to Miller for interrogation. Miller said that during the battlefield interrogation the suspect, who he believed was an

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well ...

, tried to grab his

9 mm This is a list of firearm cartridges that have bullets in the to caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviate ...

Beretta Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapons Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for various civilian, law enforcement, and military p ...

handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...

, and that he shot the man in

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of Force (law), ...

. The military later identified the man as Atta Mohammed. The base was attacked shortly after as Miller become aware of the planned attack and was able to rally the forces to counter the attack. Miller's lawyer told the jury that Miller stopped the man for questioning when the man walked through a defensive

perimeter A perimeter is the length of a closed boundary that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two-dimensional shape or a one-dimensional line. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference. Calculating the perimet ...

that Miller's unit had set up around a mortar unit, infiltrating the base. He said that upon being questioned the man made inconsistent statements, Miller believed the man could be a threat to Miller's unit who was scouting the area for the Taliban, that during questioning the man tried to grab Miller's weapon, and that during the ensuing struggle Miller shot and killed the man. A

platoon A platoon is a Military organization, military unit typically composed of two to four squads, Section (military unit), sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the Military branch, branch, but a platoon can ...

sergeant testified that as a result of the interrogation of the suspect the unit came to believe that a Taliban attack was imminent and heightened its security, and that within an hour the unit was in fact attacked, with the sergeant crediting Miller's interrogation of the man with saving the lives of American soldiers, his lawyer said. A witness Guardsman from Maryland testified that he heard Miller threaten to kill the man if he did not tell the truth, and that he then straddled the man, who was lying on his back, before shooting him in the head. Matt Calarco, a prosecuting lawyer, said during closing arguments: "Immediately following the event the accused said, 'I shot him. He was a liar.'"

Court martial

Miller was tried in a

court martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the mili ...

trial. After under three hours of deliberation, a 10-member jury of military members at

Fort Campbell Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astride the Kentucky–Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee (post address is located in Kentucky). Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Div ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, convicted him in July 2011, finding him guilty of

premeditated murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse ...

of a civilian. He was sentenced to

. Miller was incarcerated at the

Fort Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...

military Disciplinary Barracks, beginning in July 2011.

Sentence reduction and parole

In June 2017, Texas Republican

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Brian Babin Brian Philip Babin ( ; born March 23, 1948) is an American dentist, politician and member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from since 2015 ...

asked President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

in a letter to order a review of Miller's case and the cases of other veterans who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq who were imprisoned for battlefield crimes. Miller also received support from Maryland Democratic US Representative

Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecess ...

. In April 2018 Texas Republican U.S. Representative

testified at a hearing, supporting Miller. After a clemency hearing in July 2018, the Army Clemency and Parole Board reduced Miller's sentence to 20 years. That made him eligible for

. Retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel David "Bull" Gurfein, who served in Afghanistan and both Gulf Wars and is the CEO of United American Patriots, a nonprofit organization that lobbies for service members accused of battle crimes in war zones, said: "He's a super individual. He made the right decision, he followed the rules of engagement.... Anyone who looks into the details of the case will see an injustice has been done." After being incarcerated for eight years, subsequent to a parole hearing Miller was granted parole and was released on May 20, 2019. Miller is now the Executive Director of the Justice for Warriors Caucus and Military Adviser to Rep.

."Justice for Warriors,"
The Sean Hannity Show, September 18, 2019.

References

External links

*Rate, Micah (June 18, 2019)
"He Went to Prison for Killing a Taliban Terrorist, Now He's Seeking a Presidential Pardon"
''Townhall''.
"Derrick Miller"
United American Patriots.
"S&F Interview: Sgt Derrick Miller 10-15-19,"
WCBM, October 15, 2019. {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Derrick 1980s births Living people African-American United States Army personnel United States Army personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) American people convicted of murder American people convicted of war crimes American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Criminals from Maryland People from Frederick, Maryland People convicted of murder by the United States military Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States military United States Army personnel who were court-martialed Year of birth missing (living people) Military personnel from Maryland People from Hagerstown, Maryland United States Army soldiers United States Army reservists United States Army officers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American military personnel United States war crimes in Afghanistan Inmates of United States Disciplinary Barracks