Judge rules U.S. soldier’s killing of five was premeditated

By Eric M. Johnson TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) – A military judge ruled on Monday that a U.S. soldier who shot and killed five fellow servicemen at a combat stress clinic in Iraq acted with premeditation, a decision that will almost surely get him life in prison. U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell, in a deal that spared him the death penalty, pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty in Baghdad in a 2009 shooting that the military has said may have been triggered by combat stress. …