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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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April 6th,
2009 - As Iraq Rape Trial Begins, Attorneys Attack Law |
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As Iraq Rape Trial
Begins, Attorneys Attack Law By Brett Barrouquere Associated Press April 6, 2009 Paducah, Ky. - The first
former Army soldier to be charged as a civilian under a 2000 law that allows
him to be prosecuted for alleged crimes committed overseas faces a trial of
his peers - in a federal courtroom in Kentucky. Steven Dale Green, a former
member of the 101st Airborne Division, was accused along with four fellow
soldiers of raping a 14-year-old girl and killing her and her family in
Mahmoudiya, Iraq, but he won't face an Iraqi or military jury. Instead, Green will face
jurors in Paducah, more than 6,700 miles away under the Military
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Jury selection started Monday morning. Congress passed the law in
2000 to allow U.S. authorities to prosecute former military personnel for
crimes committed overseas. The law specifically cites a "jurisdictional
gap" that leaves perpetrators unpunished for crimes by Americans occurring
in countries that won't prosecute them or that the U.S. is unable to
investigate or prosecute. It also covers civilians, their spouses and
military contractors. The use of the law against
Green, who faces 17 charges including murder and sexual assault, has drawn fire
from his attorneys as well as the attorney for a former Marine who was tried
under the law. They argue the law wasn't
intended for defendants like Green, who left the Army before his
co-defendants faced courts-martial. "The law wasn't
designed to do what it's doing to Green," said Darren Wolff, a former
military attorney who represents Green. But one proponent of the law
disagrees and said the law is functioning as it should. "Congress seems to have
envisioned someone just like him," said Scott Silliman, Executive
Director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke
University in Durham, N.C. Opening arguments in the
case are scheduled to begin April 27. During jury selection Monday, U.S.
District Judge Thomas B. Russell told potential jurors that the trial is
expected to last three to six weeks. Russell also told jurors the alleged
crime took place in Iraq and explained the circumstances of Green's arrest. "It will be your duty
to follow the law, even if you personally disagree with it," Russell
told a group of prospective jurors. Green, with a military-style
crew cut but dressed in civilian clothes, appeared in court Monday, but left
before the first prospective jurors entered the room. As attorneys questioned
jurors in Paducah, some Mahmoudiya residents were reading the London-based
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper which carried news of the case. "A US soldier faces
death penalty," said one headline. "We don't want only
this American soldier to be hanged," said Shihab Ahmed, a relative of
the raped girl. "We want more than him to be executed. And any American
soldier who abuses any Iraqi citizen should be hanged and executed." Jabir al-Hamdani, the head
of the local council, also called for the death penalty. "This soldier
has abused Iraqis as a whole, abused humanity and distorted the image of the
U.S.," he said. Green, 22, of Midland,
Texas, and four other soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry
Regiment based at Fort Campbell, Ky., were investigated after an Iraqi girl,
Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire. Her family was also
killed on March 12, 2006, in an area known as the "Triangle of
Death." By the time the Army pressed
charges in June 2006, Green had been honorably discharged with a personality
disorder and returned to the United States. The other four soldiers were
charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and each faced a court
martial. Three pleaded guilty and a jury convicted one. They received
sentences ranging from five years to 110 based on their acknowledged roles in
the attack. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Marisa Ford, who is prosecuting the case, said at least three of those
soldiers as well as members of the slain girl's surviving family may be
called as witnesses in the case. But, because Green had been
discharged - and the military refused to allow him to re-enlist - federal
prosecutors filed an indictment against Green, charging him with conspiracy,
murder and sexual assault. Wolff said the law as
written treats Green differently from his alleged co-conspirators, all of
whom faced military juries and none of whom faced the death penalty. Most civilian juries do not
consist of people who have seen combat and can assess a soldier's actions
based in part on their own experience, Wolff said. That issue, said attorney
Joe Preis, was central to the case of his client, former Marine Jose Luis
Nazario Jr. Nazario was charged under
the law after Green, but went to trial first. A civilian jury in
Riverside, Calif., acquitted Nazario of voluntary manslaughter, assault with
a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
Prosecutors said he was part of a group of Marines who killed an unarmed
detainee after a group of men was captured in a house in Fallujah during a
lull in a fierce battle. Preis said jurors seemed to
be uneasy with second-guessing battlefield decisions. Preis, one of three
attorneys who represented Nazario, said the law needs to be changed. "This type of
prosecution isn't what the law was intended to do," Preis said. It's a concern Wolff has in
Green's case. "There's so much more
that goes into understanding the situation," Wolff said. "How can
they accurately get the impression of a battlefield in Paducah?" Associated Press writer
Katarina Kratovac in Baghdad contributed to this story. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gS9-ssFGmse6OtSA4HV6De8XN6bQD97D66U00 |