Steven Green, Rapist & Murderer, Spared Death Sentence

I don't often feel outrage, but what happened today in a Palooka, er, Paducah, Kentucky courtroom is highly outrageous.

On March 12, 2006, Steven Dale Green and his four buddies broke into the home where Abeer Hamza lived with her family. Abeer had just turned 14 two weeks earlier. After they separated the girl from her family, Green murdered Quassim Hamza, his wife, Fakhriya, and their five-year-old daughter. At the same time, in the other room, his four comrades were raping Abeer. Green then joined them. He raped Abeer, and then shot her in the head. The crew then set fire to the home. Abeer had a another sister and two brothers, also children, who were not home at the time. They were left orphaned.

Today, this conspirator/quadruple-murderer/burglar/rapist/arsonist was spared the death sentence, and given life in prison instead.

Green was the last of the gang to be convicted and sentenced. In none of the cases was the death sentence given.

I can't imagine what set of facts would have been heinous enough to move the jury to sentence Green to death. It seems that there is no set of circumstances under which an American soldier who commits crimes against foreign civilian populations will get the death sentence.

As with Abu Ghraib, this will no doubt move some Iraqis to retaliate in predictably ugly, perverted ways. When a soldier runs amuck, a cool-headed interpretation is that his actions should not reflect upon the military as a whole, or the United States as a whole. But when the soldier is caught and placed in our justice system, the way the soldier is treated does properly reflect more widely. Abeer's grandmother was quoted as saying, "I will hate American soldiers until I go to my grave," and I wouldn't blame her for hating the rest of us as well. As we continue to give leniency to our military criminals, it reinforces the idea that we as a society devalue Iraqi life and dignity. At this point, we are holding onto the thinnest shred of legitimacy in our invasion and occupation, which I am ashamed to say I initially supported.

With today's sentence -- which no doubt will get wider press in Iraq than it will here -- I can understand why even the most level-headed, sane Iraqi would consider the United States the enemy, and why the less sane will be moved to retaliate.