PADUCAH, Ky. — A former soldier convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi teen and murdering her family was spared the death penalty Thursday and will serve a life sentence after jurors couldn’t agree unanimously on a punishment.
Former Pfc. Steven Dale Green of Midland, Texas, will be formally sentenced Sept. 4 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell. Jurors who convicted Green on May 7 told Russell they couldn’t agree on the appropriate sentence after deliberating more than 10 hours over two days.
In a March 2006 attack in Mahmudiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Green and three other soldiers went to the home of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, 14. Green shot and killed the teen’s mother, father and sister, then became the third soldier to rape the girl before killing her.
Green’s attorneys didn’t deny Green’s involvement in the attack. Instead, they focused on building a case that he didn’t deserve the death penalty because he faced an unusually stressful combat tour in a unit that suffered heavy casualties and lacked sufficient Army leadership.
Green’s father, John, sighed as the verdict was read. “It’s the better of two bad choices,” he said.
