A former US soldier faces a possible death sentence after being convicted of raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her family near Baghdad in 2006.
A US federal court jury delivered guilty verdicts on all 16 counts against former Private 1st Class Steven Green and will decide his fate in the trial's death penalty phase beginning on Monday.
The 24-year-old was tried in federal court as a civilian on murder, rape and obstruction of justice charges since his arrest came after he was discharged from the US Army later in 2006 for a ‘personality disorder.’
The trial, which lasted eight days, featured prosecution testimony by Green's former comrades in which they detailed the brutal assault, one of several incidents involving US soldiers that enraged Iraqis and strained US relations.
Green, who was 19 at the time of the crime, was described as the trigger-man in the group of five men, who donned black ‘ninja’ outfits and raped 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and shot to death her and her father, mother and six-year-old sister.
The incident unfolded after the soldiers drank whiskey, played cards, and plotted the attack in Mahmudiya, 30km south of Baghdad.
Green later bragged about the assault, saying what he had done was ‘awesome.’
