Edmond soldier's latest appeal of unpremeditated murder conviction could be his last

If the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, based in Washington, declines to hear the Edmond native's case, he will have no more legal avenues to pursue. Behenna, 28, is serving a 15-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for killing an Iraqi man.

Behenna, whose case has attracted national attention, wrote an open letter to supporters in August criticizing the military justice system, though he said he still hoped to have “a fair, impartial trial where all the evidence may be heard.”

Vicki Behenna, Michael's mother and a federal prosecutor in Oklahoma City, said Friday that the family is “very hopeful (the court) will take the case, and we believe that it should.”

Behenna's parents, who live in Edmond, may be back in the Washington area within the next couple of months to ask a military clemency board to reduce their son's sentence again. Vicki and Scott Behenna have appeared before the board twice, and the sentence has been reduced once, by five years.