Biography
Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía became the first U.S. soldier to publicly refuse to return to Iraq. After leading an infantry squad in Iraq for five months in 2003, he came home on leave and refused to redeploy, applying for conscientious-objector status on the grounds that he had witnessed war crimes including the use of small-arms fire as crowd control on civilians and the abuse of detainees at Al Asad airbase. The Army denied the application and court-martialed him at Fort Stewart, Georgia for desertion. He was convicted on May 21, 2004 and sentenced to one year in military prison; he served nine months at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. After his release he was elected national chairman of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
CCR reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces declined review in January 2010 of the petition seeking reversal of his conviction, rank restoration and back pay. This is a later appeal outcome, not a new arrest or imprisonment. Center for Constitutional Rights Annual Report2010, original PDF page 38. Source: https://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR_Annual_Report_2010.pdf#page=38
Custody chronology correction
The March 10, 2005 Amnesty notice explicitly reports Mejía's completed release on February 15, 2005, with good-conduct reduction, and says he was home with his family. Amnesty's February 21 release update independently states the same day. The previous February 14 endpoint has been corrected in both existing overlapping records. These records concern the same confinement and their durations must not be added together. The distinct March/May start dates and the May 20/21 court chronology still require reconciliation; this correction does not endorse either start date or establish total jail time.
