.jpg)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Green sentencing case continues
Former Army PFC Steven Green's defense counsel continued to present their sentencing case today, presenting testimony of a mitigation specialist and one of Green's relatives concerning his upbringing. Today's AP report is located here. Judge Russell recessed the case until Monday, when the defense will continue to present evidence. Judge Russell told the jury that the case would be submitted to them for sentencing by Wednesday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
My bet is that the jury comes back with LWOP. I say that for a number of reasons: first, the other participants didn't get the death penalty (yes, I understand that Green masterminded it and pulled the trigger on the family, thus his culpability should be higher); second, the jury was presented with various evidence that the command was aware that this guy was off his rocker and did nothing; third, you've got a fair bit of mitigating evidence. You've also got a horrific crime that occurred as well.
But the real bottom line is that you've got civilians on the panel, who probably have probably some hesitancy with the death penalty for a soldier committing a war crime.
That said, I'd give it a 75% chance of the death penalty if he was being tried in the military justice system. Because soldiers who have seen combat probably think to themselves: yeah, we've been in the crap too, and we didn't rape a girl and murder her family.
Maybe I'm not giving the civilian jury enough credit.
Post a Comment