Thursday, May 07, 2009

Green convicted in Iraq rape, murders

The Associated Press reports that a federal jury has convicted ex-PFC Steven D. Green in the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and three members of her family. Green now faces the death penalty for his role in the 2006 killings in Mahmudiya.

2 comments:

Cap'n Crunch said...

Supposedly his lawyers are quoted as saying that they never thought that he wouldn't be convicted, but were simply laying the groundwork for the sentencing portion of the case.

That said and their comments notwithstanding, I do think they were looking for a non-capital murder conviction instead of the capital murder conviction.

The far more interesting question is whether or not a prosecutor can convince a federal jury to sentence a former soldier to death for his conduct in a war zone, during war time. That is particularly so in Kentucky, which, while it has the death penalty, does not sentence a lot of folks who are eligible to death to death (one has to wonder whether or not the government might have been better off pursuing Green in his native Texas, who have far less qualms about imposing the death penalty).

Anonymous said...

Looks like its time for a cocktail!