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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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May 20th,
2009 - Federal Prosecutor Urges Death Penalty for Green News article from Louisville
Courier-Journal |
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Federal Prosecutor Urges
Death Penalty for Green By Andrew Wolfson Louisville Courier-Journal May 20, 2009 Paducah, Ky. - A federal prosecutor
today called former Pvt. Steven Green’s crimes in Iraq “unthinkable and
outrageous” and asked a jury to “finish what he started” by putting him to
death. “This is a chance for you to
say that our soldiers do not do this, that we are a good and decent people,”
Justice Department attorney Brian Skaret told the jury of nine women and
three men who will decide Green’s fate. One of Green’s lawyers will
give a closing argument in the penalty phase of his capital murder trial
later today. The jury convicted the
24-year-old Green on May 7 of rape, murder and other charges in the death of
14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the shooting death of her family in
Mahmoudiya, Iraq, about 20 miles south of Baghdad in March 2006. Green is the first former U.S.
serviceman to face the death penalty in a civilian trial for a war-time
crime. He is being tried in federal court because he was discharged from the
Army before his role in the crimes was discovered. His trial is in Paducah
because he was deployed from Fort Campbell with the 101st Airborne Division. Three of his co-defendants
already had been court-martialed and sentenced to long prison terms, although
all are eligible for parole in 10 years after starting their sentences. Green sat silently in court
as Skaret asked the jury to return the death penalty and described his
defense case as a “blame game” designed to throw a “smoke screen” over the
atrocity. Green’s lawyers have
presented witnesses who say that he came from a broken home, that he suffered
a brain injury while fighting in Iraq, and that the crimes were triggered in
part by poor leadership and neglect of Army offices. External link: http://tinyurl.com/prq4as Civilian Jury Considers
Death Penalty for Ex-G.I. By James Dao New York Times May 20, 2009 In 2006, a group of soldiers
raped a 14-year-old girl in the Iraq town of Mahmudiya, murdered her and
members of her family and then set her body ablaze to cover their tracks. It
was one of the most brutal atrocity cases involving American troops in the six-year
war, and one that continues to outrage Iraqis. This week, the prosecution
of the soldiers reaches its climax as a federal jury in Paducah, Ky.,
considers perhaps the weightiest question in the case: Should a 24-year-old
former Army private, considered a ringleader of the group, be put to death
for the murders? Several major issues are at
stake in their verdict. Iraqis have been demanding the death penalty for the
former soldier, Steven D. Green, a private first class with the 101st Airborne
Division at the time of the killings. Only death will prove the fairness of
the American judicial system and bring a measure of solace to the victims’
relatives, many Iraqis say. The only other possible sentence, life without
parole, could set off protests. Although at least four other
men have pleaded guilty or been convicted in the attack, none are facing the
death penalty, and most will be eligible for parole in 10 years or less. Mr. Green’s lawyers have
also raised questions about the Army’s culpability in the crime. Without
really contesting Mr. Green’s role in the killings, the defense has argued
that officers knew that Mr. Green’s platoon was anguished over the deaths of
several fellow soldiers and that some men in the unit, Mr. Green in
particular, had admitted a desire to kill Iraqi civilians. Yet the Army did
not remove the unit from front-line duty, as one stress counselor advised, or
refer any soldiers for more intensive mental health care. “The United States of
America failed Steven Green,” Scott Wendelsdorf, one of Mr. Green’s lawyers,
said in closing arguments in the penalty phase of the trial on Wednesday. Prosecutors say the issue
was simpler than that. Whether or not he was suffering from combat stress,
whether or not there were breakdowns in unit discipline or a lack of mental
health care for the soldiers, Mr. Green understood that hurting civilians
would not just be morally wrong, but harmful to his platoon, they have
argued. “They’ve tried to make Mr.
Green a victim in this case, but he is not a victim,” Brian Skaret, an
assistant United States attorney, told the jury on Wednesday. “This is about
heinous acts committed on vulnerable victims.” The case is just the second
time - and the first involving possible capital punishment - that a former
member of the military has been tried under a 2000 law allowing prosecution
of civilians for crimes committed overseas while they were in the military,
legal experts said. Mr. Green left the Army, with an honorable discharge for
mental health reasons, just weeks before he was charged, in 2006. The crime occurred near the
height of the insurgency, when American forces were suffering heavy
casualties from roadside bombings and gun battles with shadowy attackers. Mr.
Green’s unit, Company B, First Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, Second
Brigade Combat Team of the 101st, had arrived in Iraq in the fall of 2005 and
was quickly dispatched to a town south of Baghdad in what was known as the
Triangle of Death, burning with Sunni unrest. Within weeks, several
soldiers in the battalion were killed, including a revered sergeant whom
Private Green later called “one of the best people I’ve ever known,”
according to a video obtained by The Courier Journalof Louisville. Morale
plummeted, soldiers have testified, and, in December, Private Green told an
Army stress counselor that he wanted to kill Iraqis, including civilians. The counselor, Lt. Col.
Karen Marrs, testified that for several reasons - multiple soldier deaths in
a short period, rapid turnover of unit leaders, manpower shortage and increased
numbers of days in combat - she had labeled Private Green’s unit “mission
incapable” and in need of “rest away from combat.” Colonel Marrs also testified
that feelings of hostility and vengeance toward all Iraqis were prevalent in
the unit, but that she did not think that Private Green was planning to act
on his anger. In March 2006, after a night
of drinking bootleg Iraqi whiskey, Private Green and other soldiers staffing
a checkpoint discussed raping an Iraqi girl, according to testimony. Wearing
civilian clothing and ski masks, the soldiers broke into a nearby house and
raped Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. Private Green killed the girl’s parents
and a younger sister before shooting the girl in the head with the family’s
AK-47, other soldiers testified. Although Mr. Green pleaded
not guilty, his defense was less about proving his innocence than avoiding
the death penalty. Mr. Green, who was raised in Midland, Tex., came from a
broken and chaotic home, defense witnesses testified, did poorly in school
and got into the Army in 2005 only with a so-called morals waiver, having had
problems with alcohol and drug abuse. Then, his lawyers asserted, the Army
left him with weak supervision and missed clear evidence of his emotional
problems. But that argument has been
vigorously challenged not only by the prosecution, but also by veterans, who
say that despite the immense stress on tens of thousands of front-line troops
in Iraq, such atrocity cases have been relatively rare. Ashley Edwards contributed
reporting from Paducah, Ky. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/21soldier.html |