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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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December 11th,
2008 - Ex-GI to Plead Insanity at Rape-Slaying Trial |
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Ex-GI to Plead
Insanity at Rape-Slaying Trial From the Associated Press December 11, 2008 Louisville, Ky. - A former
Army soldier charged with raping and killing an Iraqi teenager, then slaying
her family, will rely on an insanity defense at trial, a defense attorney
said Thursday. Federal Public Defender
Scott Wendelsdorf said during a conference call with prosecutors and a judge
that former 101st Airborne soldier Steven Dale Green will rely on medical
experts’ evaluation of his medical condition in fighting the charges against
him. “My whole defense is going
to be not guilty by reason of insanity,” Wendelsdorf said. Green, of Midland, Texas,
faces a possible death sentence if convicted on 16 charges that include
premeditated murder and aggravated sexual assault in 2006. He pleaded not
guilty in November 2006. Green is scheduled to face trial on April 27, 2009,
in Paducah, Ky. Green’s attorneys previously
filed a notice of a possible insanity defense, which allowed defense
attorneys to have their client examined. Wendelsdorf’s comments on Thursday
marked the first time in the long-running case that attorneys made clear how
they intend to defend Green. An insanity defense means a
jury can find the person not guilty by reason of insanity if a severe mental
disease or defect rendered that person unable to appreciate the nature or the
wrongfulness of his acts. Green has been examined
nearly three dozen times since March 2006, when the alleged crime occurred.
Much of the conference call involved the mechanics of defense attorneys
forwarding medical reports and tests to prosecutors for review. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Marisa Ford told U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell that some reports and
materials were slow in arriving, making it difficult to consult with experts
who could rebut the insanity defense. “I need them now,
basically,” Ford said. Wendelsdorf said prosecutors
have all the documents the defense does and should have anything still
outstanding before the Christmas holidays. Green was deployed in Iraq
with the 101st Airborne Division when authorities say the assault took place
in 2006. The unit is based at Fort Campbell, an Army post on the
Kentucky-Tennessee border about 185 miles southwest of Louisville. Green is being prosecuted in
federal court because he was discharged from the military before being
charged. Two of the soldiers
testified they took turns raping the girl while Green shot and killed her
mother, father and younger sister. Four other soldiers pleaded
guilty or were convicted for their roles in targeting the girl after seeing
her at a checkpoint near Mahmoudiya. Prosecutors say Green raped, killed and
set afire the body of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and shot and killed
her father, mother and sister in a house in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from
Baghdad, in March 2006. Two of the soldiers
testified in courts martial proceedings that they took turns raping the girl
while Green shot and killed the family. They also testified that Green raped
the girl and shot her. External link: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_soldier_iraqi_rape_trial_121108w/ |