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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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May 23rd,
2009 - Iraqis Respond with Dismay to Ex-GI’s Sentence News article from the Los
Angeles Times |
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Iraqis Respond
with Dismay to Ex-GI’s Sentence Steven Green was sentenced to life without parole by a U.S. federal jury
for his role in the rape of an Iraqi teenager and the killing of her and
family members in 2006. Iraqis say it’s too lenient. By Raheem Salman Los Angeles Times May 23, 2009 Reporting from Mahmoudiya,
Iraq - Iraqis responded with dismay and outrage Friday to the decision by a
federal jury in Kentucky to spare the life of a U.S. soldier convicted of
raping and killing an Iraqi girl near this dusty town south of Baghdad three
years ago. Steven Dale Green, 24, of
Midland, Texas, was sentenced to life without parole Thursday for the rape
and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Kassem Hamza Janabi, and also for killing her
parents and 6-year-old sister at their home on March 12, 2006. "This sentence is
unjust, and we in our tribe feel displeasure, dissatisfaction and
disappointment indeed," said Mahdi Obaid Janabi, 56, an elder from the
Janabi tribe, to which the family belonged. He said tribal leaders plan
to meet to demand that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki put pressure on the
U.S. government to somehow impose the death penalty on Green, who was tried
by a civilian court in Paducah because he had been discharged from the army
by the time charges were brought. "The government must
move. ... They must claim back the honor of the family," he said. As much as any of the abuses
known to have been committed by U.S. troops in Iraq, this crime has resonated
in the Iraqi national consciousness for its brutality and callousness. Green
and four other soldiers had been drinking whiskey and playing cards while
they formulated their plan to attack the girl. Federal prosecutors said the
assailants went to the house, held the girl down, took turns raping her, shot
the family then set fire to the house in an attempt to cover up the incident.
The four other soldiers have been given prison sentences of between five and
110 years. As the ringleader of the
group, Green "deserved worse than the death penalty," said Iyad
Shaibani, 49, an engineer from Mahmoudiya. "If an Iraqi had committed a
similar crime in the United States, the punishment would have been harsher
and no excuses would have been accepted." The sentence will have an
impact on Iraqis' perceptions of American troops ahead of a referendum due to
be held this summer on whether to accept the security pact signed between the
U.S. and Iraq in December, Shaibani said. "I think Iraqis are no
longer willing to see Americans on their land as they think that such
incidents will be repeated," he said. "Iraqis in general are very
angry about this. You can see the resentment everywhere." The jury that deliberated
Green's fate was unable to agree unanimously on whether the death sentence or
life imprisonment should be applied, so the lesser sentence prevailed. Green's attorneys had not sought
to dispute their client's guilt, but they had argued that Green should not
receive the death penalty because of the stresses of combat in Iraq. They
also cited a decision by Army officials to keep Green on active duty despite
his admission that he had been having homicidal thoughts. Mahmoudiya is located in the
area once known as "the triangle of death" because of the ferocity
of the fighting here. In the three months before the incident, four members
of Green's unit had been killed in combat, defense attorneys told the court. But the Janabi family's
lawyer in Mahmoudiya, Hasan Habbar Mayahi, said there could be no
justification for what the soldiers had done. "This will fuel rancor
and hatred against the American troops," he said. "The people of Mahmoudiya
feel there is no justice. This is a badge of shame in the history of the
American military, which will be added to all the crimes they have committed
here." Staff writer Liz Sly in
Baghdad contributed to this report. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq23-2009may23,0,4617513.story Verdict forms show splits on
jury in Iraq murder, rape trial Combat stress, jurisdiction noted By Andrew Wolfson Louisville Courier-Journal May 23, 2009 Paducah, Ky. - Half the
jurors who tried to decide the fate of former Pvt. Steven Dale Green felt he
should have been tried in a military court rather than by civilian jurors,
according to verdict forms made public yesterday. Five of the 12 jurors also
felt that Green suffered from combat stress that the Army should have treated
properly but didn't. And the same number said
that he murdered 14-year-old Abeer al-Janabi and her family in their home 20
miles south of Baghdad in March 2006 while under "severe mental or
emotional stress." Green's lawyers had argued
that it was unjust for a former soldier to be judged by civilian jurors who
had never experienced war. He was tried in federal court because he was
discharged from the Army, for a personality disorder, before his role in the
crimes was discovered. Jurors declined to talk to
reporters after they failed to reach a unanimous verdict yesterday, a result
that means that Green will be sentenced to the lesser penalty of life without
the possibility of release. Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Russell, who
supervised the trial in Paducah, declined to release their names. But the verdict forms they
signed show that they were deeply divided and probably nowhere near reaching
a unanimous verdict for either the death penalty or the life sentence,
Patrick Bouldin, one of Green's lawyers, said. Prosecutor Marisa Ford, an
assistant U.S. attorney, agreed, saying the verdict forms showed that the
jury "was divided - perhaps down the middle. "Some clearly thought
death was the appropriate penalty for a crime this horrific. Others
recognized the presence of mitigators, and I don't think would have voted for
death no matter how long they continued to deliberate." She added that the jury's
votes show "how difficult this case really is. "The facts are
horrible, but penalty is a much tougher call," she said. "It is
probably the best evidence that the decision on penalty needed to be made by
a jury." The verdict forms do not
disclose the jury's final vote on whether Green should have been put to
death. But they do show that jurors unanimously found that the prosecution
had proved each of 10 aggravating factors that suggested the death penalty
was the appropriate punishment. Those included that Abeer
and the other victims were murdered to eliminate possible witnesses; that the
crimes were premeditated and that they were committed in an "especially
heinous, cruel or depraved manner." But the forms show that
about half the jurors were swayed by several arguments presented by the
defense. Half of the jurors found
that Green should have been tried in the military system, where he might not
have faced the death penalty and would have been eligible for parole. Half also said that the fact
that Green committed the crimes while under the control of military superiors
- two Army specialists who outranked him - mitigated against giving him the
death penalty. Jurors were less persuaded
by the defense that Green suffered from a chaotic upbringing in a broken
home. Only three considered that a mitigating factor against the death
penalty. Most jurors also rejected
the defense claims that the Army's failure to "recognize the unusually
harsh and stressful conditions" faced by Green's platoon contributed to
the murders." Bouldin said the results
supported the defense team's speculation that two or three jurors strongly
opposed the death penalty and two were emphatically for it. After deliberating nearly 11
hours over two days, the jury announced on Thursday that "despite all
reasonable efforts to reach a unanimous verdict," it was unable to do
so. Under federal law, that means Russell is required to impose life when
Green is sentenced on Feb. 4. Green, now 24, from Midland,
Texas, was convicted by the same jury on May 9 of capital murder in the
deaths of Abeer, her 6-year-old sister, Hadeel, and their parents, Kassem and
Fakhriya. Green and three other
soldiers - Spcs. Paul Cortez and James Barker and Pvt. Jesse Spielman -
abandoned their traffic checkpoint and walked about 300 yards to the Iraqi
family's house. Cortez and Barker took turns raping her while Green shot the
rest of the family dead, court records say. Then he raped Abeer before
shooting her three times in the head. Cortez, Barker and Spielman
were convicted at courts-martial and sentenced to long prison terms but will
be eligible for parole in 10 years. They testified against Green in exchange
for the prosecution's promise to write letters to the parole board noting their
cooperation. External link: http://tinyurl.com/pdke4c |