A mistrial was declared by a judge in Alexandria, Virginia, after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. The jury, consisting of eight members, deadlocked on accusations that civilian interrogators conspired with soldiers to mistreat detainees at the prison during the U.S. occupation of Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
This trial marked the first time a U.S. jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the past 20 years since the shocking photos of detainee mistreatment surfaced. The contractor, Reston-based CACI, argued that it was not complicit in the abuse, stating that any liability for the mistreatment lay with the government, not CACI.
