Jury spares ex-US soldier's life for Iraq rape, murders

A Kentucky jury Thursday handed a former US soldier a sentence of life in prison for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the slaughter of her family, sparing him from the death sentence.
After 10 hours of deliberation Wednesday and Thursday the nine women and three men on the jury returned without a unanimous verdict for an execution.
Their failure to agree effectively handed Steven Dale Green life in prison without the possibility of parole for the rape and killing of 14-year-old Abeer al-Janabi and the murder of her mother, father and six-year-old sister.
The judge will impose the sentence on September 4.
Green, named as the ringleader in the March 2006 atrocity, was tried in a civilian court after being discharged from the army due to a "personality disorder" before his role in the crime came to light.
Three other soldiers were given life sentences for the attack, which they plotted over whiskey and a game of cards at a traffic check point in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.