US ex-soldier risks death over Iraqi rape and murder

A FORMER soldier’s life will be in the hands of a western Kentucky jury after the panel convicted him of raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl and killing her family in Iraq.

The 12 jurors were scheduled to reconvene on Monday to weigh the penalty in the case of one-time army soldier Steven Dale Green, 24, of Midland, Texas.

Green faces a possible death sentence. Green was convicted on Thursday in Paducah in the March 12, 2006, attack on Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and her family in a village about 32km south of Baghdad.

One of Green’s defence attorneys, Darren Wolff, said the goal all along was to avoid a death sentence. “... now we’re going to go to the most important phase, which is the sentencing phase and we’re going to accomplish that goal,” he said.

Charges were brought in civilian court under a 2000 law allowing the government to charge former soldiers with alleged crimes committed overseas. Green was charged in June 2006, a month after being discharged from the army with a personality disorder before the military investigated the murders and rape.

During the trial prosecutors said Green talked frequently of wanting to kill Iraqis, but when pressed, would tell people he wasn’t serious. Prosecutors also told jurors the attack was hatched among Green and fellow soldiers who were playing cards and drinking whiskey at a checkpoint.

Talk turned to having sex with Iraqi women, when one soldier mentioned the al-Janabi family, who lived nearby, they told the court.

Three other soldiers are serving time in military prison for their roles in the attack and testified against Green during the trial.