Court Martial Attorney – Ex-soldier rescinds insanity defense in slayings
By BRETT BARROUQUERE – Associated Press Writer
© 2009 The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former 101st Airborne Division soldier no longer intends to use an insanity defense against charges that he raped and killed an Iraqi teenager and shot her family to death while on active duty in Iraq, his attorneys said in a court filing Thursday.
Attorneys for former Army Pfc. Steven Dale Green filed a notice with U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell saying mental health evidence will only be used to mitigate a possible death sentence.
The notice doesn’t give a reason, but comes just days after federal prosecutors asked Russell to allow their mental health experts to examine Green.
Green’s attorneys filed notice in May that they planned to defend their client by arguing he was insane when an Iraqi teenager was raped and killed and her family slain in an attack, allegedly by him and four other soldiers.
Scott Wendelsdorf, one of Green’s public defenders, told Russell in December, “My whole defense is going to be not guilty by reason of insanity.”
“We’re taking the case in another direction,” military defense attorney Darren Wolff of Louisville said Thursday. “We’re still confident in our case.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined comment, said spokeswoman Dawn Masden.
The new notice says that if Green is convicted, the defense will challenge at sentencing whether psychiatric care he received in Iraq deviated from accepted standards of medical care and what impact those possible deviations would have had. The notice did not outline the deviations.
That psychiatric visit came less than three months before the Iraqi teen and her family were attacked.
The notice said Green underwent psychological testing and psychiatric examinations by three doctors, but none of those tests would be introduced at trial. Defense lawyers also said that because Green is no longer claiming insanity, he’s not subject to examination by doctors of the prosecution’s choosing.
To claim insanity under federal law, defense attorneys must prove their client was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of the wrongfulness of his acts. Green’s attorneys may have opted out of the insanity defense because the three doctors’ determinations didn’t meet the legal standard, said Roberta Harding, a University of Kentucky law professor who is not involved in the case.
“Their experts may have felt like there just wasn’t enough for a defense of insanity,” Harding said. “The odds of getting an acquittal on the basis of insanity are slim anyway.”
Green is scheduled to go to trial April 27 in Paducah. The 22-year-old from Midland, Texas, faces a possible death sentence if convicted on 16 charges that include premeditated murder and aggravated sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty in November 2006.
Green, who had been a member of the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 101st Airborne Division, had been honorably discharged from the military with psychiatric problems when allegations surfaced of U.S. military involvement in the March 12, 2006 slayings. He was arrested that July as a civilian, while visiting family in North Carolina.
The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act allows prosecutors to try military personnel in federal court if they are no longer in the service and charged for a crime punishable by at least a year in prison.
Four other soldiers pleaded guilty or were convicted in courts martial proceedings for their roles in targeting the girl from a checkpoint near Mahmoudiya, a village 20 miles south of Baghdad, and helping rape and kill her.
Two of the soldiers testified they took turns raping the girl while Green shot and killed her mother, father and younger sister. They also testified that Green raped the girl and shot her.
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.
Comments on this entry are closed.