International
A former U.S. soldier died Saturday, two days after he apparently attempted suicide in the prison where he was serving multiple life sentences for raping an Iraqi teenager and killing the girl, her parents and her sister in March 2006 during his deployment in Iraq.
The case was the first prosecuted under a new law governing military cases in civilian courts.
Steven Dale Green, 28, of Midland, Texas, was found unresponsive in his cell last week at the federal penitentiary in Tucson, Ariz., said Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman John Stahley. Green's death was not announced until Tuesday because prison staff was off for the long Presidents' Day weekend, Stahley said.
Stahley said Green's death is being investigated as a suicide.
Green was a 19-year-old private in the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Ky., when he was deployed to Iraq.
Green and his fellow soldiers were stationed for several weeks at a traffic checkpoint near Mahmudiya in an area known as the "Triangle of Death" when, after an afternoon of card playing, sex talk and drinking, he and four other soldiers hatched a plan to go to the al-Janabi home, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, and rape the family's 14-year-old daughter, Abeer.
Green shot and killed the teen's mother, father and sister, then followed two other soldiers in raping the girl before shooting her in the face. Her body was set on fire in an attempt to obscure the crime.
Three other soldiers — Jesse Spielman, Paul Cortez and James Barker — are serving lengthy sentences in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for their roles in the attack. Each is eligible for parole in 2015. The fifth soldier, Bryan Howard, stayed behind at the checkpoint and later pleaded guilty to being an accessory. He served 27 months in Fort Leavenworth.
A federal jury in Paducah, Ky., deadlocked on whether to hand Green a death sentence in May 2009, but the judge in the case ordered him to serve multiple life sentences.
"I was made to pay for all the war crimes. I'm the only one here in federal prison," Green said in an October 2013 interview. "I think they plan to throw away the key in my situation."
Green was the first American soldier charged and convicted under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Signed in 2000, that law gives the federal government jurisdiction to pursue criminal cases against U.S. citizens and soldiers for acts committed in foreign countries.
Green was discharged from the military in May 2006 after being found to have a personality disorder.
In multiple interviews with The Associated Press from prison, he frequently expressed regret at taking part in the attack and frustration that he was tried and convicted in the civilian system, which did not afford him parole, while the others involved went through the military justice system and have a chance to be released from prison.
"I was punished out of proportion to everybody else," Green said in October. "I'm not a victim, but I haven't been treated fairly. Not even remotely close. That's all I ever asked for was to be treated the same. They just won't do it. I don't know why."
Al Jazeera and The Associated Press
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