U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder over a shooting spree in Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
The most serious of the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty according to a statement released by the U.S. military.
Emma Scanlan is one of Bales civilian attorneys.
SOUNDBITE: Emma Scanlan, lawyer for Bales saying:
"The charges are what we were expecting. There's no surprises. We have more information from the trial counsel detailing various witness statements and other information that's not going to be public to give us a better idea of where they're heading. So at this point we look forward to interviewing as many witnesses as we can and preparing a defense."
She says the defense is plans a thorough examination into what transpired in the early hours of March 11th.
SOUNDBITE: Emma Scanlan, lawyer for Bales saying:
"If and when we go to Afghanistan, what we hope to accomplish is to interview all of the people who were at the forward operating base at the time that our client was present there to find out what they saw, what they didn't see and, you know, what went on. There seems to be a lot of confusion -- it's being reported and it's coming to us as well -- about what happened, who was there, who witnessed what and that's what we'd like to find out."
Bales is being held in solitary confinement at the Fort Leavenworth military prison and will likely be tried at his home base in Washington state.
Deborah Gembara, Reuters