5 years trimmed from ex-cop's sentence in Katrina body case

NEW ORLEANS -- An ex-New Orleans police officer who burned the body of a man shot to death by a fellow officer in the chaos after Hurricane Katrina had his 17-year-sentenced reduced by more than five years Thursday by a federal judge.

But Gregory McRae lost his bid for an even greater sentence cut.

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk reduced McRae's sentence to 11 years and nine months because a federal appeals court last year tossed out one of his convictions related to the burning of Henry Glover's body four days after Katrina hit in 2005. But Africk insisted a stiff sentence still was warranted.

Africk rejected defense attorney Michael Fawer's argument, bolstered by a forensic psychologist's testimony, that McRae was mentally "unhinged" Sept. 2, 2005, owing to four days with almost no sleep, pressure to help find and rescue people and horrific sights such as bodies floating in flood waters and dogs eating flesh from corpses.

Psychologist Rafael Salcedo said he believed McRae was suffering from the early onset of post-traumatic stress disorder by the time he burned the car containing Glover's body, and it diminished McRae's ability to realize the action was wrong.