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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday threw out lengthy prison sentences for three former Iraq. The shooting killed or injured at least 31 civilians when contractors unleashed a torrent of machine-gun fire and launched grenades into a crowded downtown Baghdad traffic circle from their heavily armored trucks. An F.B.I. agent once called it the “My Lai massacre of Iraq.” The ruling is a setback to the effort — which now stretches across three presidential administrations — to demand stiff consequences for the shooting in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. Along with the massacre by Marines of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha and the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, it was among the war’s darkest moments and stained the reputation of the United States. Three of the contractors — Dustin L. Heard, Evan S. Liberty and Paul A. Slough — were convicted in 2014 of voluntary manslaughter and using a machine gun to carry out a violent crime. They were sentenced to 30 years in prison, a mandatory sentence on the machine-gun charge. A fourth, Nicholas A. Slatten, a sniper who the government said fired the first shots, was convicted of murder and received a life sentence. Defense lawyers argued that the convoy was under fire from insurgents, a claim that prosecutors denied and Iraqi witnesses rejected. The Nisour Square shooting forced a reconsideration of America’s reliance on contractors in war zones. Until then, no security contractor was more powerful than Blackw... Link to the full article to read more