Justin Fisher (convicted criminal)

Justin Fisher is a former U.S. Army Specialist And Co-conspirator in the [...] of PFC Barry Winchell whose head was bashed with a baseball bat in his sleep by then Private Calvin Glover on July 1999 at Fort Campbell,KY. He served seven of the 12½ years to which he was sentenced. He became a free man when he was released from a halfway house on October 26th, 2006. Calvin Glover currently remains in military prison, serving a life sentence.

Co-Conspiracy

In 1999, on the night of July 4th, PFC Barry Winchell was murdered in his sleep by Calvin Glover, at the direction of Justin Fisher. This was later revealed as an anti-gay hate crime since testimonies in the trial revealed a history of verbal abuse from Justin. According to testimony at PVT Glover’s court-martial, Fisher played a primary role in Barry’s [...] including: giving PVT Glover the baseball bat; washing the blood off the bat; planning how to cover up the crime; being the primary soldier who taunted Barry about being gay and spread rumors about Barry; and prompting PVT Glover to kill Barry.

Subsequently, Glover took a baseball bat from Fisher's locker and struck Winchell in the head with the baseball bat as he slept on a cot outside near the entry to the room that Winchell shared with Fisher in the early hours of 5 July 1999. Winchell died of massive head injuries on 6 July.

Glover was later convicted for the [...] of Winchell and Fisher was convicted of lesser crimes regarding impeding the subsequent criminal investigation and both were subsequently incarcerated at the United States Disciplinary Barracks.

Lenient Plea Agreement

SPC Fisher plead guilty to two counts of obstructing justice (including washing blood off the [...] weapon), three counts of false swearing and providing alcohol to a minor. The maximum sentence for these charges is 20 years in prison. The military judge, Colonel Pangburn, sentenced SPF Fisher to 14 years, but the sentence was capped at 12.5 years by the plea bargain agreement.

The [...] charges against Fisher were dropped and Fisher was sentenced in a plea bargain to 12.5 years, denied clemency in 2003, released to a halfway house in August 2006, and released from all custody in October. Glover is serving a life sentence.

Major General Robert T. Clarke is the commander responsible for granting a lenient plea agreement to SPC Fisher that does not hold him accountable for his role in goading PVT Glover to attack Barry Winchell. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) believes the plea agreement is a travesty.1

On Tuesday, November 18th, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm the promotion of Major General Robert T. Clark to the rank of Lieutenant General, the Army’s second highest rank. The senate confirmation drew rancor from the nation’s major Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Organizations, including the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) based on his failure to protect lesbian and gay service members from anti-gay violence while he was Commanding General at Fort Campbell.

See also

• Barry Winchell
• Soldier's Girl
• Allen Schindler