MICHAEL BEHENNA PAROLED

Michael Behenna, the Army 1st Lieutenant from Edmond being held in the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has been paroled effective March 14th.

A Washington source said the family just received word of the action.

Behenna, who was convicted of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone, learned early Wednesday morning and called his parents in Edmond, where he will return next month.

“We go between tears and laughing,” Vicki Behenna told The Oklahoman. “I’m just so thankful. I’m just so very very thankful. It’s wonderful.”

From The Oklahoman: His parents, Vicki and Scott, and brother Brett appeared last month before the U.S. Army Clemency and Parole Board outside Washington and presented the members with a 400-page report that included a letter from Michael, letters of support from Gov. Mary Fallin and members of the congressional delegation and law enforcement officials.

The family told the board that Michael would work on a western Oklahoma cattle ranch and take classes at Oklahoma State University in ranch operations.

“They came and got him about 7:30 this morning and gave him a letter to read,” Vicki Behenna said. “The letter said his request for clemency (a reduction in sentence) had been denied but that his request for parole had been granted.”

She said, “I think he’s in shock. I started crying immediately when he told me. Of course over the phone I can’t see his expression. He would kind of go, ‘Yeah, it’s good, mom. It’s good.”

Here’s background, from an earlier editorial in The Oklahoman:

Behenna was convicted in 2009 of killing a suspected Iraqi terrorist named Ali Mansur, who was believed to have had a hand in a roadside bombing that killed two of Behenna’s men. Behenna testified at his court-martial that he shot Mansur after the man, who had been stripped during an interrogation, threw a piece of concrete at him and lunged for Behenna’s gun.

His conviction on a charge of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone was upheld by two military appeals courts. His original 25-year sentence was cut to 15 years, but the idea Behenna could serve the entire time for this crime is distressing.

Behenna, 30, was a model soldier and terrific leader. What happened that day in Iraq doesn’t make him a hero — he has never sought that title. It also doesn’t make him a coldblooded killer who should spend the most productive years of his life in a prison cell.

We’re convinced politics played a role in his sentence. At the time, the U.S. needed to show little tolerance for those who crossed the line in combat. The prison holding Behenna is home to other soldiers similarly ensnared. Other U.S. military personnel convicted of worse crimes — but at a different time during the Iraq War — are free men today or serving much lesser sentences.

Behenna comes from great stock. His mother is a federal prosecutor. His dad is a former investigator with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. His brother works as an Oklahoma County prosecutor. They long to have their son and brother home, where a job awaits and graduate school plans are in the works.