Steven Dale Green

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This article documents a current court case.
Information may change rapidly as the case progresses.

For other people named Steven Green, see Stephen Green.

PFC Steven Dale Green United States Army
Born May 2, 1985 (1985-05-02) (age 23)

Place of birth	Midland, Texas
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	2005-2006
Rank	Private First Class
Unit	101st Airborne Division
Battles/wars	Iraq War

Steven Dale Green (born May 2, 1985) is a former Private First Class in the United States Army who is charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl named Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi and murdering her and three of her family members in the village of Mahmudiyah.

1 Biographical details
2 Mahmudiyah incident
3 Trial
4 Retaliation
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Biographical details

Green graduated from Infantry Training Brigade and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. According to a military spokesperson and a criminal complaint filed in connection with the charges, Green was honorably discharged from the military "due to antisocial personality disorder but before the military was aware of the incident."^[1]

Green grew up in Midland, Texas. According to school officials, he dropped out of high school in 2002 after completing the 10th grade and moved to Denver City, Texas, where he earned his high school equivalency in 2003. Days after a January 2005 arrest for alcohol possession, Green enlisted in the US Army. In doing so, he was granted a moral character waiver for prior drug and alcohol related offenses that might have otherwise disqualified him. Green was stationed in Iraq from September 2005 to April 2006 and discharged in May 2006.^[2]

[edit] Mahmudiyah incident

Main article: Mahmudiyah incident

On 30 June 2006, the FBI arrested Green, who was held without bond and transferred to Louisville, Kentucky. On 3 July 2006, United States Federal Court prosecutors formally charged him with raping and killing Abeer Qassim Hamza, a fourteen-year-old girl, and with killing her five-year-old sister Hadeel, her father, Qassim Hamza Rasheed, and her mother, Fakhriya Taha Muhasen in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, on the 12th of March of 2006. On 10 July, the U.S. Army charged four other active duty soldiers with the same crime. A sixth soldier, Sgt. Anthony Yribe, was charged with failing to report the attack, but not with having participated in the rape and the murders.

Green and four other soldiers, Sgt. Paul E. Cortéz, Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, had planned raping Abeer Qassim Hamza. Pfc. Howard was ordered to monitor radio traffic while the others entered the Hamza family's house. Green ordered the father, mother, and younger daughter to a bedroom and shot them, saying: "I just killed them; all are dead." Green, and at least one other soldier, raped Abeer Qassim Hamza, after which Green shot her in the head two or three times. Five soldiers, including Green, have been formally charged with raping the girl and murdering her parents and little sister. The soldiers Paul E. Cortéz, James P. Barker, Jesse V. Spielman, and Bryan L. Howard might face the death penalty, said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell in a news conference. ^[3]

Reportedly, Fakhariya Taja Muhassain worried that her daughter, Abeer, had attracted the unwanted attention of U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint near their home. She asked her neighbor, Omar Janabi, if Abeer could sleep in his daughter's room at his house, Mr Janabi agreed, but the Hamza family were murdered the next day.^[4] Mr Janabi, who said he discovered the Hamza family bodies, found the husband, the wife, and the younger, five-year-old daughter in one room, all shot dead. In another room of the Hamza house, Mr Janabi found the burned cadaver of Abeer Qassim Hamza.

[edit] Trial

On July 6, 2006, Green entered a plea of not guilty through his public defenders. U.S. Magistrate Judge James Moyer set an arraignment date of August 8 in Paducah, Kentucky.^[5]

On July 11, 2006, his lawyers requested a gag order. "This case has received prominent and often sensational coverage in virtually all print, electronic and Internet news media in the world." "Clearly, the publicity and public passions surrounding this case present the clear and imminent danger to the fair administration of justice," said the motion. Prosecutors had until July 25, 2006 to file their response to the request.^[6]

On August 31, 2006, a federal judge rejected a gag order. U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell said there is "no reason to believe" that a former soldier's right to a fair trial would be in jeopardy. Furthermore he added, "It is beyond question that the charges against Mr. Green are serious ones, and that some of the acts alleged in the complaint are considered unacceptable in our society."^[7]

In July, 2007, federal prosecutors, led by Brian Skaret of the United States Department of Justice's Domestic Security Section, announced they will be seeking the death penalty for Green. This is based on the fact that prosecutors believe the rape and killings were premeditated, and were committed using a firearm.

The prosecution of this case is unique in that although the alleged crimes were committed by an active member of the United States military, which normally would fall under the jurisdiction of the military court system, Green was indicted and arrested after he had been discharged from the Army. Thus, the case is being tried instead by the United States Department of Justice's Domestic Security Section.

[edit] Retaliation

Green was assigned to the same platoon as Spc. David J. Babineau, who was shot to death at a roadside checkpoint on June 16, 2006, in Yusufiyah, Iraq, and Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Lowell Tucker, who were captured, tortured and killed, allegedly by Iraqi insurgents. Military investigators are now looking into whether the insurgents abducted Menchaca and Tucker in retaliation for the killing of the Iraqi civilians.^[8] However, in the first video depicting the desecration of what is believed to be the bodies of both Menchaca and Tucker, there is no mention of the incident at Mahmudiya at all. It is only in a second release of the video, two months later, that any mention of the Mahmudiya incident is made.