A US Marine convicted of plotting to murder and kidnap an Iraqi civilian outside Baghdad last year on Friday escaped a prison sentence for his crimes, the military said.
Trent Thomas, who was found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap and murder Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania on April 26 last year, received a reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge at a sentencing hearing.
The 25-year-old former lance corporal, who has been held in detention since the allegations first surfaced last year, could have faced a life prison sentence for his role in the killing.
On Thursday prosecutors had recommended Thomas be jailed for 15 years during a hearing at the Marines' Camp Pendleton base outside San Diego.
Awad, a 52-year-old father of 11, was taken from his home in a late-night raid by eight US servicemen and killed before the Marines involved covered up the incident to make it look as if Awad was an insurgent planting a bomb.
The killing is one of a series of incidents that have tarnished the reputation of US forces in Iraq.
In closing arguments, military prosecutor lieutenant colonel John Baker had told the jury that the evidence presented had "proven to you that Corporal Trent D. Thomas is a murderer."
"Corporal Thomas failed when he contracted to take part in this conspiracy and to cover up and lie," Baker said.
"This is a plan to kill somebody in cold blood. They (the squad members) were a mob. Vigilante justice is against the law. He (Thomas) might as well have put a signature on a death warrant."
However, defense lawyers said Thomas's judgment had so been impaired by post traumatic stress disorder and brain damage following three tours of duty in Iraq that he went along with the plot.
Five other servicemen had already pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to lesser charges in connection with the incident.
Thomas had previously pleaded guilty to premeditated murder, kidnapping and other charges, only to change his plea to not guilty.
Two other soldiers, including the alleged ringleader of the plot sergeant Lawrence Hutchins, face courts-martial next week.
Witnesses have testified Awad was killed after the squad of soldiers failed to locate a suspected insurgent operating in the area west of Baghdad.
Awad was allegedly dragged from his home and frog-marched to a hole, which marines had dug to look like a roadside bomb crater.
He was then bound before being shot three times in the head. An AK-47 rifle and a shovel were left beside his body to create the impression he had been an insurgent laying a roadside bomb.
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