Lane McCotter is a retired lieutenant colonel, whose service included Special Forces Ranger in the 101st Airborne Division and later as a Green Beret, during the Vietnam War.
[1] In 1997, McCotter resigned his post with Utah’s corrections system after Michael Valent, a 29-year-old schizophrenic inmate, died after being strapped naked to a restraint chair for 16 hours when he refused to remove a pillowcase from his head.
[2] The incident was videotaped, publicised nationally, and served as the basis for a lawsuit from Valent's family against the State to stop further use of the device, also naming McCotter.
[4] Not long after, on May 20, 2003, Attorney General of the United States John Ashcroft announced that McCotter, along with three other corrections advisers, would be sent to Iraq to assist in assessing criminal justice needs of the Country.
In the following months, the national media broke the Abu Graib story, and after intensive investigation McCotter was found to have no role in the management of any prisoners, nor military personnel.