BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three U.S. soldiers have been charged with rape and murder and a fourth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya, the military said Sunday.
The four were accused Saturday following an investigation into allegations that American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division raped the teenager and killed her and three relatives at her home south of Baghdad.
Ex-soldier Steven D. Green was arrested last week in North Carolina and has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts of murder.
The U.S. statement said the four soldiers still on active duty will face an Article 32 investigation, similar to a grand jury hearing in civilian law. The Article 32 proceeding will determine whether there is enough evidence to place them on trial.
Looks like Green will have a civilian trial and the others will have UCMJ.
Thanks for update pings, TK.
From a defense attorney's perspective an Article 32 proceeding is far and away superior to a grand jury. The accused soldier has a right to be present with counsel and is allowed not only to cross examine prosecution witnesses but to offer evidence in his own behalf.
You can expect the Justice Department to delay Green's trial until the Army has completed action on its four accuseds beginning with the least culpable (the dereliction charge). If the evidence is there you can expect the other three to at least offer to plead guilty to lesser charges.
Green's best hope is that the four other soldiers spend enormous energy trying to minimize their involvement and end up compromising their own credibility and undermining the consistent narrative that forms the heart of the prosecution's case before the AUSA can get Green's trial underway.
If the prosecution already has admissions and confessions from some or all of the accuseds that are internally consistent and point to Green--and the reports suggest that this is indeed the case--then Green's attorneys will have considerably less room to maneuver in.
The criminal justice system appears to be working exactly as it should. The prosecution will have its feet held to the fire by defense counsel working tirelessly within the rules to represent the best interests of their clients. Unfortunately, this matter will likely take many months to bring to a conclusion which means it will become a seemingly permanent weapon dragged out by the MSM on an hourly basis and used in its continuing assault on the administration's operations in Iraq .