COSTELLO: A U.S. Army soldier will plead guilty to going on a shooting spree that left 16 Afghan villagers dead. Staff Sergeant Robert Bails, you remember him? He hopes to avoid the death penalty by admitting to last year's massacre, which also wounded six Afghans. Let's bring in CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. You know, it's interesting and sad about this case is what Bails attorney is bringing up as to why the sergeant might have committed these crimes.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Carol. His defense attorney is going to mount what he hopes will be a very strong case for why Bails may have gone on this murderous rampage. The attorney, John Brown, is telling us that he will continue to pursue the angle that Bails was suffering from post-traumatic stress, a traumatic brain injury and that, indeed, on the base he was on there was alcohol and some steroid-type drugs, which Bails had access to and, in fact, took. All of this together made him what the attorney says is a broken man and that he went out and committed these crimes, perhaps really the worst atrocity of the Afghan war for U.S. participation. It's going to be a very interesting legal argument. You know, does traumatic brain injury, does post-traumatic stress and alcohol and drugs lead to this type of rampage? The military traditionally has not accepted stress, combat stress as a causal single reason for being excused, if I will, from committing a crime. So it will be interesting to see if the attorney can convince them, what is at stake here? The death penalty will be taken off the table if the attorney can convince them Bails will get life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Army Sergeant To Admit To Afghan Massacre