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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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May 21st,
2009 - Ky. Jury Continuing Deliberations in Case of Convicted Ex-Soldier News article from the Associated
Press |
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Ky. Jury Continuing Deliberations
in Case of Convicted Ex-Soldier From the Associated Press May 21, 2009 Paducah, Ky. - A jury has
returned for a second day of deliberations over whether a former soldier
convicted of raping and murdering an Iraqi teen and killing her family should
be sentenced to die or imprisoned for life. The panel returned Thursday
morning just before 9 a.m. CDT. Jurors started deliberations in the case of
former Pfc. Steven Dale Green Wednesday afternoon, but ended the day without
a decision. The federal court jury in
Paducah convicted the 24-year-old ex-soldier from Midland, Texas, on May 7 of
raping and killing 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and shooting her family
to death in March 2006, near Mahmoudiya, Iraq, south of Baghdad. During closing arguments
Wednesday, federal prosecutors said Green should be sentenced to death
because of the brutality of the crime, while Green's attorneys told jurors he
should be spared a death sentence. © 2009 The Associated Press External link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6434926.html Jury deliberates fate of
ex-soldier Green could get death penalty By Andrew Wolfson Louisville Courier-Journal May 21, 2009 Paducah, Ky. - A federal
prosecutor yesterday asked a jury to take former Pvt. Steven Green's life for
killing an Iraqi family in March 2006, while one of his defense attorneys
pleaded, "For God sake, spare him." After a four-week trial -
the first in front of a civilian jury in which a former soldier faces the
death penalty for a war-time crime - the jury of nine women and three men
began deliberating Green's fate. After three hours and 40
minutes, the jury quit for the day and will return at 9 a.m. CST today. Green's lawyers said the
Army failed to properly treat him for stress after they say he suffered an
emotional breakdown while serving in the most dangerous area of Iraq - with a
platoon that suffered more casualties than any other in the war. "The United States of
America failed Steven Green and a lot of soldiers in Iraq, and now the United
States of America is trying to put him to death," federal public
defender Scott Wendelsdorf told the jury. "America does not kill
its broken warriors. Spare this broken boy. For God sake, spare him." But Justice Department
attorney Brian Skaret called Green's crimes - raping a 14-year-old girl and
murdering her and her family - "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," Skaret said. On May 9, the jury convicted
Green, who was 20 at the time of the crimes, of raping 14-year-old Abeer
Kassem Al-Janabi in her family's home about 20 miles south of Baghdad, and of
the capital murders of Al-Janabi, her 6-year-old sister Hadeel, and her father
and mother, Kassem and Fakhriya Al-Janabi. Green was tried in federal
court because he was discharged from the Army before he was charged, and the
trial was held in Paducah because he was deployed from Fort Campbell with the
101st Airborne Division. Three of Green's
co-defendants already had been court-martialed and sentenced to long prison
terms, although they are all eligible for parole in 10 years after their
sentences started. In the penalty phase,
Green's jury must wade through 250 pages of instructions that took 90 minutes
for Chief U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Russell to read. Jurors must consider 10
aggravating and 39 mitigating factors before returning their decision. The aggravating factors
include the prosecution's claims that the crimes were premeditated, that they
were committed in an especially cruel and depraved manner, that two of the
victims were youths and that several people were killed at once. The mitigating factors
include Green's age and lack of significant criminal history, as well the
defense's assertion that he quickly confessed and faces a harsher punishment
than his Army co-conspirators, who were equally culpable. The closing arguments in the
penalty phase came after a week of testimony in which the government called
two of Abeer's brothers who were left orphans by the murders. The defense offered a string
of Green's high school classmates, friends and their parents, who testified
that he was effectively homeless through part of high school and had little
to do with his mother or father. A cousin testified that he grew up in homes
filled with yelling people, clutter and very little parental direction. Green's lawyers also
presented expert witnesses who said he suffered from emotional problems that
led to a lack of impulse control, 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 officers. In Skaret's closing remarks
to the jury, he accused the defense of playing a "blame game"
designed to hide the truth. "This crime was not
about the stress of war or his background - it is about heinous, premeditated
acts committed against vulnerable victims," he said. Skaret said it was
"outrageous" that Green's lawyers tried to lessen his
responsibility by citing the deaths of friends and comrades who died while
serving honorably in war. "If they knew how their
deaths were being used, they would roll over in their graves," Skaret
said. He conceded that there were
some "bad apples" in Green's family, but he noted that others are
successful - there is a doctor on one side and a school principal on the
other. "We are not defined by
our birthright, by our mother or father, but by the choices we make," he
said. He recalled personal
anecdotes about the victims as he showed the jury pictures of them before and
after the crimes. Wendelsdorf argued that the
crimes - "15 minutes of madness" - were "the product of
war." He cited testimony from
Green's aunt, Patricia Ruth, a high school principal near Dallas, who said:
"We did not send a rapist or murderer to Iraq." Wendelsdorf said Green
started as a good soldier, but the "unrelenting terror of war,"
including the deaths of his friends and platoon and squad leaders, caused him
to start losing control. When he went to an Army
counselor for help - and told her he wanted to do nothing else but kill all
Iraqis - she returned him to combat "with a handful of sleeping
pills," Wendelsdorf said. The same counselor - Lt.
Karen Marrs, an Army psychiatric nurse practitioner - told commanders that
Green's entire platoon was dysfunctional and needed to be disbanded. "But what did they
do?" Wendelsdorf asked. "They did nothing because they needed warm
bodies in the field." The penalty phase has
unfolded against the backdrop of another startling incident in Iraq: Just as
the jury was starting to hear evidence last week, Army Sgt. John M. Russell
was arrested and charged with fatally shooting five fellow soldiers at an
Army stress-debriefing unit in Iraq. As a result, Russell changed
his admonition to the jury, telling them not to watch any news broadcasts or
read anything in the newspaper. He earlier had told them to avoid news
reports about Green or his trial. External link: http://tinyurl.com/pmphs3 Defense calls Green ‘broken
warrior’ let down by military By Deb Feyerick Cable Network News May 21, 2009 Paducah, Kentucky - During
closing arguments to spare the life of Steven Green, convicted of war crimes
in Iraq, the defense argued that that the U.S. military failed the former
soldier, who was suffering from trauma. "America does not kill
its broken warriors," federal defender Scott Wendelsdorf, his voice
choked with emotion, told the jury Wednesday at the U.S. District Court in
Kentucky. Executing Green, Wendelsdorf
said, would let the military "off the hook" and send the message
his superiors bear no responsibility for sending Green into combat, knowing
he'd been traumatized by the deaths of several respected unit leaders. But prosecutors seeking the
death penalty told the jury Wednesday it was time to end the blame game. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Brian Skaret said that the soldiers in Green's unit who died honorably
"would be rolling over in their graves" if they knew their deaths
were being used to explain why Green went on the murder rampage. Skarat said that before the
killings, Green and his four co-conspirators were talking about
"sex" and "screwing Iraqi chicks" rather than avenging
their colleagues' deaths. The same jury deciding
Green's fate convicted the former private first class with the 101 Airborne
Division of murder, rape, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a 2006
rape-and-murder rampage south of Baghdad. Four co-conspirators were
tried in a military court. Two who testified for the prosecution are serving
life sentences and will be eligible for parole in 10 years. Green raped and killed a
14-year-old Iraqi girl after first murdering her parents and 6-year-old
sister in their home, a short walk from a traffic checkpoint south of Baghdad
where Green was stationed. He has been on trial in a
civilian court because he had been honorably discharged for a personality
disorder before the crimes came to light. If the jury chooses death, he would
be the first former U.S. soldier given the death penalty by a civilian court
for war crimes. In his defense, Wendelsdorf
mentioned the testimony of psychiatric nurse practitioner Lt. Col. Karen
Marrs. She interviewed Green in Iraq and said he exhibited characteristics
that put him at risk for killing himself or others. Green was not pulled from combat
but instead was given sleeping pills and returned to his checkpoint. Defense
lawyers said the army knew Green was suffering psychologically and chose to
ignore it rather than give him the mental-health care he needed. Green's lawyer called the
crime "horrific" and acknowledged, "No one is responsible for
the death of the al-Janabi family but Steven Green." Wendelsdorf said although
the mitigating factors - including Green's troubled upbringing - do not
excuse the crime, they should "help determine what the punishment should
be." But, the premeditated
murders of Mr. and Mrs. al-Janabi and their two daughters were so horrific
that those factors could not mitigate the crimes, Skaret said. Showing graphic photos of
the al-Janabi family Green is convicted of killing, Skaret said Green signed
his own name to his death sentence and asked the jury "to finish what he
started." External link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/21/kentucky.soldier.iraq.murder/index.html |