Posted on 05/21/2009 3:21:54 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
PADUCAH, Ky. - A federal jury spared a former soldier Thursday of the death penalty for his conviction on raping and fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl after killing her parents and younger sister while he was serving in Iraq.
Pfc. Steven Dale Green will be sentenced to life, capping an unusual case of a crime in a war zone being prosecuted in civilian court.
Green, 24, of Midland, Texas, was being tried in federal court because he had been discharged from the Army for a personality disorder before he was charged with the Iraq crimes.
Green's defense team had asked them to consider the "context" of war, saying soldiers in Green's unit of the 101st Airborne Division lacked leadership. Defense attorneys also said the Army missed signs that Green was struggling after the loss of friends in combat and that it offered little help to him and other soldiers in his unit.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
“personality disorder”
So that is what they call the actions of people who act like that!!
We’re going soft.
In the old days there wouldn’t had been any quibbling. He would had been strung up and made an example of. Afterwhich, the body would be cut down and put in a common grave.
Or he would have made a "deal."
We should give him to the Iraqis and let them deal with his sorry ass.
While I do have a lot of sympathy for our men who go through terrible times, I don’t think I’d excuse them for raping young girls and committing murder.
He deserves to pay for his crimes, and the death penalty seems fitting here.
personality disorder
Sociopath.
Fills our prisons.
Usually needs a bullet to the brain.
If you know how to play the game you can convince any one you are crazy or sane by how you play the game.
Good case for high speed lead poisoning.
This guy should have been hanged...there’s no excuse for what he did to this little girl and his family.
Firing squad.
You’d have to wonder whether even The Dirty Dozen would want him. Remember what happened with Maggot?
I’d have to wonder why this wasn’t dealt to by the Iraqi courts. They *do* have courts and they *do* have democracy now. Perhaps he ought to have been turned over to them for sentencing? They’ve had plenty of practise with death penalty cases and, so far, none of their cases have come back before the courts on recidivist offenses.
UCMJ - The maximum penalty for rape IS death.
Maybe that is why they got this into civilian courts, because they could play the ‘mentally unstable’ / ‘personality disorder’ card.
Screw that, the guy should have hung for his crime.
This guy is a monster. No need to keep him alive. Crimes that horrific require an equally horrific punishment. Death.
It’s easy.
Supply his cell with a length of rope.
He’ll take care of it in less than a year.
Actually I think it should be law for every cell
be supplied with a length of rope 6 ft min.
And an eyelet in the ceiling sufficient to hold 5oo LBS.
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