A young soldier from Sweetwater, Tenn., stands trial this week for the deaths of three Iraqi prisoners.

Video: Commander Won't Testify In Soldier's Murder Trial

Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard is the only one of the four men charged who hasn't pleaded guilty and is the only one to take his chances with a jury.

Girouard's defense team claims, among other things, that a speech by his commanding officer encouraged the deadly violence.

Girouard's commander, Col. Michael Steele, will not have to testify in the case, even though he was reprimanded and re-assigned over the incident.

But Channel 4 News has learned that Steele will be seen and heard by thousands of moviegoers in an upcoming documentary.

The movie is called "I Am An American Soldier” and follows an army unit from its send off at Fort Campbell through a very eventful year in Iraq.

In the documentary, Steele gives a speech early on in the film to soldiers who are about to be deployed to Iraq.

This pep talk outlines important things to remember once they arrive in the war-torn nation.

Channel 4 wanted to air some of that speech, but the filmmaker said he will sue WSMV if the station showed what large audiences in New York will see in a matter of weeks.

Channel 4 showed that bit of the film to a former Army intelligence analyst, who is now a Ph.D. candidate with front line experience in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

“I've never really heard an officer say some of the things I heard in that briefing. Basically it seemed like it was a take-no-prisoners type of scenario the colonel was trying to espouse to the soldiers … don't bring back prisoners. He goes back and seems to redeem himself with no unlawful killings. But what is an unlawful killing when you had just told them don't bring back prisoners?” said former Army Ssg. Russell Parman.

Vanderbilt law professor and West Point graduate Prof. Michael Newton, who is also a retired military prosecutor and expert on war crimes, also watched the colonel’s speech.

“Well he tells them be tough, be fair and the thing about the message is that in the smoke and the adrenaline and the fatigue (that) they have to rely on their instincts. They have to rely on their training to do what's right, and he tells them do what’s right, do not hesitate … But then he caveats that by saying this should be very clear (that) we will not pillage, rape, burn (and) to be disciplined …,” said Newton.

The accused man's sister had a very different reaction.

Part of his defense is that there was an order from Steele to kill all Iraqi men of military age on that mission.

“To tell these boys that you’re the hunted … don't bring any of them back … basically he’s saying, ‘I don't care what you do over there. They’re breeding or multiplying. I don't want any alive,’ that’s what he’s telling them,” said Girouard’s sister Joy Oakes.

Channel 4 also talked with the civilian attorney defending Girouard. She fought unsuccessfully to have Steele testify at the trial.

“When you have words like, ‘Don't let them live to fight another day. They’re going to make more of them . . .,’ those words have a specific meaning. You add that altogether with, ‘You'll be eaten unless you act like the dominant one on the food chain,’ and suddenly you create, I believe, a perfect storm out there. To think that all those things together do not have an effect on some 20 or 21 years old, who is newly coming into the military and find themselves in this very difficult situation there, I think is absurd," said defense attorney Anita Gorecki.

Less than two months ago, the Army officially reprimanded Steele in relation to this case.

Investigators said he did issue improper orders to his soldiers that contributed to the deaths of unarmed Iraqi men.

Steele was re-assigned out of Iraq and the 101st Airborne.

Experts said he will never command troops again and will not be promoted.