Is attorney John Henry Browne out of his league in Afghan slaying case?

High-profile Seattle attorney John Henry Browne has been
highly visible in the press as he builds his defense of
the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians.

But a former Army Major raises questions about
whether Browne is out of his league.

“It appears to me that this defense attorney is just
trying to try this case in the court of public opinion and
just not getting it that the military is going to be
impervious to that,” retired Army Maj. Mike Lyons tells
97.3 KIRO FM’s Seattle’s Morning News.

While Browne has tried to paint Staff Sgt. Robert Bales as
a potential victim of post traumatic stress syndrome and
the effects of repeated deployments, Lyons, an analyst for
CBS News,
says the types of tactics the attorney would use in a
civilian court won’t have much of an impact on a military
proceeding. The Army has said it plans to try Bales at
Fort Leavenworth where he is now held.

“If he’s going to put PTSD on trial and deployments on
trial, he’s got a very big uphill battle,” Lyons says.

“It seems to me that he’s not getting the concept that
he’s not going to have the same influence if this was a
regular civilian trial,” Lyons says.

Browne has admitted he has little experience in military
courts, telling reporters he’s only handled three cases in
over 40 years of practicing law.

The attorney says he plans to travel to Afghanistan to
conduct his own defense investigation, but Lyons wonders
if he’ll get very far considering Browne will need the
help of both the U.S. military and Afghan government,
which
has expressed outrage over the slaying and the fact that
Bales was removed from their country instead of facing
justice there.

“He’s going to need help from the government to do that
besides protection to get to that Afghan village,” says
Lyons.

“The Afghan government could arrest him for being in
cahoots with his defendant, so he’s going to run a little
risk if he decides to go down that path.”