By Laura L. Myers

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Doctors opened a medical review Sunday on a U.S. soldier charged with killing 16 civilians, most of them women and children, near his Army post in Afghanistan in an effort to determine his state of mind at the time of the killings and ability to stand trial.

The review, known in the military as a “sanity board,” will be conducted by three doctors at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, and will be completed by May 1, according to a U.S. Army spokesman.

The hearing started on Sunday morning and is expected to continue for several days, base spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan accused of gunning down the villagers in cold blood during two rampages through their family compounds in Kandahar province last March.

More at Yahoo! News