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douglas9

(4,474 posts)
Sat Oct 19, 2019, 07:57 AM Oct 2019

A new documentary series about Clint Lorance pits the infantry officer convicted of murder against h

The fog of war, just kills, and war crimes are the focus of a new documentary series coming to STARZ. Titled Leavenworth, the five-part series profiles 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, the Army infantry officer who was convicted on murder charges for ordering his soldiers to fire on three unarmed Afghan men on a motorcycle, killing two and wounding the third, while deployed to the Zhari district in Kandahar province, on July 2, 2012.

Directed by Paul Pawlowski, the series' hour-long episodes walk the viewer through the shooting; the allegations that the killings were unlawful; the findings of the military court that sentenced him to serve 20 years in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (before that was reduced to 19 years); the campaign calling for Lorance's exoneration; and the efforts of his attorneys to have his case heard in civilian court after the military denied his appeal.

Leavenworth, which comes out on Oct. 20, is told in the style of a true-crime documentary. The first episode inches along slowly: There's Lorance's childhood, growing up in a small rural town; shots of the local market where he worked his first job, eventually being promoted to manager at 16. Then Sept. 11, 2001, and the decision to enlist — a choice that later interviews attribute to Lorance's search for belonging, his desire to prove himself, and his fears of coming out as gay in a deeply religious community.

"I'd gone through a period of my life where I thought I was an abomination," Lorance explained in episode one. "My whole life has been internal combat, and so it was natural for me to go into the Army. You're in this small world and you know that a bigger world exists on the outside and you've got to see it for yourself. The Army was a great place to do that."

https://taskandpurpose.com/leavenworth-clint-lorance-documentary-series

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