Louisville, Ky. – Federal prosecutors filed notice Tuesday that they will seek the death penalty if former soldier Steven Green is convicted of killing an Iraqi family and raping a 14-year-old girl.
The notice, filed in U.S. District Court, cites 12 alleged offenses related to the slayings, including that the deaths were premeditated, involved sexual abuse and were committed with a firearm.
Green, a former 101st Airborne Division soldier, was indicted Nov. 1 in the rape and killing of the girl and the slayings of three others in her family in March 2006.
“The defense is obviously disappointed,” Green’s public defender, Patrick Bouldin, said in an e-mail.
The attorney general has to approve all federal death-penalty cases.
Green, a 22-year-old former private first class from Midland, Texas, served 11 months with the 101st Airborne Division. He received an honorable discharge and left the Army in May 2006. He was discharged because of an “anti-social personality disorder,” according to military officials and court documents.
He is being tried in civilian court in Paducah, Ky., because he was discharged before he was charged. No trial date has been set.
Three soldiers already have been convicted in military court for their roles in the attack in Mahmudiyah, a village south of Baghdad. A court-martial for a fourth soldier is scheduled for July 30.
