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(CNN) -- A former inmate at Greene State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania says pictures of alleged abuse at the hands of U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. came as "no surprise" to him. Nicholas Yarris spent 22 years on death row and was at Greene State prison when Graner worked there as a prison guard. Yarris knew Graner for about five of those years, and he says bitter memories resurfaced after seeing news accounts of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Graner, 35, is one of seven reservists charged in the Iraqi abuse scandal. Yarris was wrongfully convicted in 1981 for rape and murder and sentenced to die. But he was released in January after DNA tests cleared him of the crime. "I was just sickened by it because I know what he used to do. And I can only imagine without the restraint of any supervision over there, what he was doing," Yarris told CNN in an interview earlier this week. Yarris said what Graner wanted to do in Iraq was no secret to anyone who would listen. "Charles was just filled with the glee of opportunity to go over there. Because he said as we were walking down the corridor, 'I can't wait to go kill some [people],' " Yarris said, quoting Graner using a racial epithet. Pennsylvania prison officials declined to comment on the allegations. Graner's attorney, Guy Womack, said he has no information on Yarris or his accusations of abuse at the Pennsylvania prison. Yarris said he can recall how Graner smiled over a tray he saw the guard spit in. He said it was the same smile he saw in a photograph of Graner at the Iraqi prison. "His personal joy was to provoke inmates by, like, making them lift their testicles two, three times" during strip searches, Yarris said. "When someone screamed at him, he just loved it." He added, "That smile he showed, he showed best when he was getting some prisoner to lose it, to snap, to lose his mind and scream at Charles. He loved it." Yarris said that although he witnessed the guard's actions against other inmates, Graner never physically abused him. Graner was named in two lawsuits alleging abuse at the Greene State facility, but both suits were dismissed, and Graner was not disciplined. In one case, Graner was accused of throwing an inmate onto the floor, kicking and beating him and placing razor blades in his food. In the other, an inmate accused Graner of picking him up by the foot and throwing him into his cell. In the Iraq case, Graner, a specialist with the 372nd Military Police Company, is charged with conspiracy to maltreat prisoners, dereliction of duty for allowing prisoners to be maltreated, cruelty and maltreatment, maltreatment of prisoners, assault of prisoners, committing indecent acts, adultery and obstruction of justice. "Perhaps the gentleman has already snapped," Graner's attorney, Womack, said of Yarris. "Spc. Graner has not done any of these things. And, of course, in Abu Ghraib what he did-which was bad enough-is he was following orders. So he did nothing that was wrong. He was following lawful orders. "It has nothing to do with this death row inmate, who perhaps did snap." |
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