"Gallagher had been charged in September 2018 with ten offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice over accusations that he had stabbed to death an injured, sedated 17-year-old ISIS prisoner, photographing himself holding the head of the corpse by the hair and sending the photo to friends.[3] He was also accused by fellow Navy SEAL snipers of randomly shooting two Iraqi civilians: a girl walking with her friends on a riverbank; and an unarmed elderly man.
He was acquitted on all but one of the charges he faced on July 2, 2019. He was found guilty of posing for a photograph with the teenager's corpse in violation of Uniform Code of Military Justice article 134, "General article". Gallagher was sentenced to demotion and four months of confinement, which resulted in him being released for time served during pretrial confinement. His trial included an unexpected confession from another medic while testifying under immunity he claimed that he suffocated the victim to save him the fate he would suffer if turned over to Iraqi authorities.[4]"