Steven Dale Green faces life in prison because jurors couldn't agree on the death penalty. --PHOTO: AP
PADUCAH (Kentucky) - THERE'S no question ex-soldier Steven Dale Green raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her parents and sister.
Still, jurors in Kentucky couldn't agree this week whether to sentence the 24-year-old to death for heinous crimes he committed while serving in Iraq, indecision that may signal growing public awareness of combat stress and its consequences, experts say.
'There was less of an understanding back then. Now, everyone comes back a hero. Back in the Vietnam days, everybody who came back was kind of shunned. They talked bad to you when you got off the plane. Nobody respected you. They just didn't care much for soldiers.'
Vietnam War veteran Herman Campbell, 60, of Jackson, Kentucky.
'I think there's some hesitancy about executing people knowing how much we know now about post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of being surrounded by violence.
In March 2006, after an afternoon of card playing, sex talk and drinking Iraqi whiskey, Green and three other soldiers went to the home of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Green shot and killed the teen's mother, father and sister, then became the third soldier to rape her before shooting her in the face. Her body was set on fire.
His attorneys never denied his involvement, instead focusing on building a case that he didn't deserve the death penalty. Former Marines and other soldiers who served with Green, of Midland, Texas, testified that he faced an unusually stressful combat tour in Iraq's 'Triangle of Death' with a unit that suffered heavy casualties and didn't have sufficient leadership.
Green, who faces life in prison because jurors couldn't agree on the death penalty, was tried in civilian court because the Army had granted him an early discharge before he was arrested for the 2006 killings. Several fellow soldiers were also involved but were tried in military court.
The killings by Green and a recent mass shooting by a US soldier at a combat stress clinic in Baghdad emphasise the challenge the military faces as it tries to identify and treat stress disorders, according to veterans and other military experts.
'The problems of combat stress are an issue that needs daily focus and attention for soldiers who are deployed,' said Anita Gorecki, a former military attorney who currently defends soldiers through her firm in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 'We're not looking at these people and these cases in a vacuum and apparently the jury in this case took that into consideration.'
Combat stress is not unique to current wars, but veterans say the public is now more aware of the mental toll it exacts.
The jury forms showed that members also debated whether the Army deserved some of the responsibility for failing to recognise that Green could act on homicidal thoughts of killing Iraqi civilians.
Green's attorneys said in a statement after the sentencing that if the military ignores the effects of combat stress among soldiers, 'we are certain a tragedy like this will occur again in the future'.
Facing spikes this year in the number of soldier suicides, the military is seeking new answers to treat the estimated one-fifth of military members who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and now have symptoms of anxiety, depression and other emotional problems.
This week, the Defence Department announced a new campaign featuring the stories of soldiers who are getting mental health treatment to show that seeking help is not a career-ending move. -- AP
