A former Army lieutenant who was convicted of second-degree murder is causing controversy by planning to take the July 2023 Bar Exam and, after passing, become licensed as an attorney.

Clint Lorance  was convicted for ordering his men to fire on three unarmed citizens in Afghanistan. He was pardoned by former President Donald Trump.

Lorance graduated from the Appalachian School of Law in May and hopes to take the Oklahoma Bar Exam later this month. But a weapons squad leader who served as a staff sergeant under Lorance, Mike McGuinness, opposed his admission to the Bar in an Army Times op-ed.

Lorance was convicted by a military court for ordering his men to fire on three men riding a motorcycle toward his platoon in July 2012, three days after he assumed command of 1st Platoon of the 82nd Airborne Division. The platoon was on a routine patrol to let local villagers know about an upcoming meeting with U.S. forces. Two of the motorcycle riders died and a third was wounded. No weapons were found on or near the men, according to eyewitness testimony.

In the op-ed, McGuinness stated that Lorance confronted him and a staff sergeant after the shooting and asked, “What are we going to do about this?”

Asking for a cover-up “is pretty damning evidence of a lack of moral fiber,” McGuinness writes. “What displays that even more is Lorance’s insistence that he was the victim, his complete lack of remorse, and his failure to take accountability for his actions in Afghanistan.”

McGuinness also cites an account that Lorance threatened women and children who sought to collect the bodies after the shooting.

“We deserved better in 2012, and potential clients deserve better now,” McGuinness writes. “Clint Lorance is a free man and should be able to live out his days, hopefully staying within the law and doing whatever it is he enjoys doing. But at no point should he ever again hold a position of power or influence over people. He has shown that he cannot be trusted with that.”

A second soldier who served under Lorance, Todd Fitzgerald, also publicly opposes Lorance’s admission to the Bar.

Lorance had served six years of his 18-year prison sentence when he was pardoned.

You can read more about this controversy here .

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