an Investigating Officer. According to Gary D. Solis, professor at Georgetown University Law Center and former Marine Corps prosecutor, it is likely that prosecutors will be able to get at least one of the eight squad members to cooperate with the promise of a reduced sentence, as some of them potentially face the death penalty. On October 4, 2006, Bacos revealed through his lawyer Jeremiah Sullivan that he will testify against the Marine defendants. The details of that plea deal and his proffered testimony were not released at the time. Defense attorneys are expected to object that testimony allegedly obtained under coercion as unreliable, and also to argue that Iraqi accounts of the incident are also suspect. In spite of defense statements that their clients' Article 32 hearings showed weaknesses in the prosecution's case, on September 25, 2006, Mattis recommended that Jodka, Shumate, and Magincalda face a general court martial for murder. According to Mattis' official statements, the defendants no longer face the death penalty. Petty Officer Bacos' testimony On October 7, 2006, military prosecutors reached an agreement with Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos in which charges against the corpsman would be reduced to kidnapping and conspiracy in return for his testimony. According to Bacos, the Marines set out that night to capture an insurgent who had been captured and released several times. They agreed in advance if they could not get the insurgent, they would "get someone else". Knocking on the door of one house, they took the home owner's AK-47 rifle and a shovel from his yard. They proceeded to another house which turned out to be the home of the unidentified Iraqi man. They allegedly took this man from his home, allegedly bound his hands and feet, then placed him in a hole. The squad opened fire on this man as Hutchins put a call into the command center requesting permission to fire on an insurgent. At the same time, Bacos fired an AK-47 into the air to simulate the sound of a fire fight. After the squad fired upon this man from a distance, Hutchins fired three rounds into his head. Thomas fired seven to 10 more rounds into his chest to check he was dead. Pennington then pressed Awad's fingerprints onto a shovel and AK-47 they had brought to implicate him as an insurgent. Shumate's conspiracy plea and sentence In November 2006, Lance