LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A former Army soldier charged with murder and rape of a teen girl in Iraq may claim an insanity defense when the case goes to trial next year.
The attorneys for Steven D. Green said in two motions filed Thursday that they may raise the issue both at trial and sentencing if Green is convicted of attacking and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family.
Green is scheduled to go to trial on April 27, 2009. Green, 22, faces a possible death sentence if convicted on 16 charges that include premeditated murder and aggravated sexual assault.
Thursday was the deadline for Green's lawyers to file their motions if they want to keep open the option of an insanity defense.
Prosecutors say Green raped, killed and set afire the body of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and shot and killed her father, mother and sister in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Baghdad, in March 2006. He pleaded not guilty in November 2006.
Green is being prosecuted in federal court because he was discharged from the military for having an anti-social personality disorder before being indicted.
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