First Lieutenant Michael C. Behenna is a 25 year old Army Airborne Ranger stationed near Baiji Iraq, north of Baghdad. Michael grew up in Edmond, Oklahoma and graduated from Edmond Memorial High School in 2002. Michael graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma and was commissioned through Army ROTC in 2006.

1LT Behenna has been serving in Iraq as an infantry platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division in northern Iraq since September 2007. On July 31, 2008, he was charged with the premeditated murder of an Iraqi suspected of being a terrorist. The Article 32 preliminary hearing and trial are scheduled to take place in Iraq.

If a soldier is convicted of premeditated murder, a life sentence is automatic. Civilian counsel can be retained, but a military defendant must do so at his own expense. It is an expensive process to retain experienced counsel to go to a combat zone to represent 1LT Behenna. He has retained Houston lawyers Jack B. Zimmermann and Kyle R. Sampson to represent him. This Legal Defense Fund has been established for the sole purpose of helping ensure that 1LT Behenna has meaningful access to experienced legal defense counsel in the military prosecution. All donations to this Fund will be used exclusively for attorney fees and expenses associated with this legal defense and will be maintained in an independently administered trust account. Disbursements from the Fund will be made directly to 1LT Behenna’s legal counsel upon receipt of qualified invoices. Funds will not be distributed directly to 1LT Behenna.

If you are able to help defray these costs, please send contributions to the:

1LT Michael Behenna Legal Defense Fund
c/o Jack Dawson, co-trustee
100 Park Avenue, Second Floor
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102-8099

or Rachel Lawrence Mor, co-trustee
3037 N.W. 63rd Street, Suite 251
Oklahoma City Oklahoma 73116

Please read our Legal Disclosure before donating. Thank you for assisting Lt. Michael Behenna.