The Bitter End to Private Green

Steven Dale Green, 28, of Midland, Texas, was found unresponsive in his cell last week at the federal penitentiary in Tucson, Ariz., said Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman John Stahley. Green's death was not announced until Tuesday because prison staff was off for the long Presidents' Day weekend, Stahley said.

Stahley said Green's death is being investigated as a suicide.

[...]

Green and his fellow soldiers were stationed for several weeks at a traffic checkpoint near Mahmudiya in an area known as the "Triangle of Death" when, after an afternoon of card playing, sex talk and drinking, he and four other soldiers hatched a plan to go to the al-Janabi home, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, and rape the family's 14-year-old daughter, Abeer.

Green shot and killed the teen's mother, father and sister, then followed two other soldiers in raping the girl before shooting her in the face. Her body was set on fire in an attempt to obscure the crime.

[...]

Three other soldiers — Jesse Spielman, Paul Cortez and James Barker — are serving lengthy sentences in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for their roles in the attack. Each is eligible for parole in 2015. The fifth soldier, Bryan Howard, stayed behind at the checkpoint and later pleaded guilty to being an accessory. He served 27 months in Fort Leavenworth.

[...]

In multiple interviews with The Associated Press from prison, he frequently expressed regret at taking part in the attack and frustration that he was tried and convicted in the civilian system, which did not afford him parole, while the others involved went through the military justice system and have a chance to be released from prison.

"I was punished out of proportion to everybody else," Green said in October. "I'm not a victim, but I haven't been treated fairly. Not even remotely close. That's all I ever asked for was to be treated the same. They just won't do it. I don't know why."

  alJazeera

Well, maybe not out of proportion to the girl you raped and murdered, and her family you killed. Nor out of proportion to and Pfcs Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca, who were captured by members of the girl’s community, tortured and killed in retaliation.

Green had already been discharged (for a “personality disorder”) when the crime came to light, which is why he got a civilian trial and the others a military trial. He was also granted a “moral character waiver” to enlist in the first place.

If the military could have kept it covered up, none of the soldiers would have been busted.