Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Applied right or wrong here...?

[uppityperson]

Opinions? Should he be tried in civilian court, or returned, somehow, for a military trial? My take on this is they know he'll be convicted, but wouldn't get death penalty in military vs civilian trial.

Is this being done right? While raping/murdering "personality disorder" assholes like this should be held responsible for their crimes, is the law being applied right here? Thinking of other people who may be in this position someday, perhaps unfairly.


http://www.buffalonews.com/nationalworld/national/story/632210.html

The first former Army soldier to be charged as a civilian under a 2000 law that allows him to be prosecuted for alleged crimes committed overseas faces trial in a federal courtroom in Kentucky. Steven D. Green, a former member of the 101st Airborne Division, was accused along with four fellow soldiers of raping a 14-year-old girl and killing her and her family in Mahmoudiya, Iraq, but he won’t face an Iraqi or military jury. Instead, Green will face jurors in Paducah, under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Jury selection started Monday.

Congress passed the law in 2000 to allow U. S. authorities to prosecute former military personnel for crimes committed overseas. The law specifically cites a “jurisdictional gap” that leaves perpetrators unpunished for crimes by Americans when they occur in countries that won’t prosecute them or when the United States is unable to investigate or prosecute. It also covers civilians, their spouses and military contractors.

The use of the law against Green, who faces 17 charges, including murder and sexual assault, has drawn fire from his attorneys. They argue that the law wasn’t intended for defendants such as Green, who left the Army before his co-defendants faced courts-martial. “The law wasn’t designed to do what it’s doing to Green,” said Darren Wolff, a former military attorney who represents Green.

But one proponent of the law disagrees, and said the law is functioning as it should. “Congress seems to have envisioned someone just like him,” said Scott Silliman, executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University....

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/04/07/as_iraq_rape_trial_begins_attorneys_attack_law/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news

Former soldier Steven Dale Green is accused of raping a 14-year-old girl and killing her and her family while serving in Iraq, but he won't face an Iraqi or military jury. Instead, under a 2000 law that allows U.S. authorities to prosecute former military members for crimes overseas, he'll be tried by a jury of his peers in Paducah, more than 6,700 miles away. Green, a former member of the 101st Airborne Division, is the first ex-Army soldier to be charged as a civilian under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Congress passed the law to address a "jurisdictional gap" that can leave Americans unpunished for crimes abroad. It also covers civilians, their spouses and military contractors.

Jury selection in Green's case started Monday. The 22-year-old from Midland, Texas, faces 17 charges including murder and sexual assault. Green and four other soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment based at Fort Campbell, Ky., were investigated after an Iraqi girl was raped and her body set afire. Her family was also killed on March 12, 2006, in an area known as the "Triangle of Death." But by the time the Army pressed charges in June 2006, Green had been honorably discharged with a personality disorder and returned to the U.S.
he other four soldiers were charged and faced courts-martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Three pleaded guilty and a jury convicted one. They received sentences ranging from five years to 110 based on their acknowledged roles in the attack.

Green's attorneys argue the 2000 law wasn't intended for defendants like him and treats him differently from his alleged coconspirators, all of whom faced military juries and none of whom faced the death penalty. "The law wasn't designed to do what it's doing to Green," said Darren Wolff, a former military attorney who represents him.

(clip)
Most civilian juries do not consist of people who have seen combat and can assess a soldier's actions based in part on their own experience, Wolff said. "There's so much more that goes into understanding the situation," Wolff said. "How can they accurately get the impression of a battlefield in Paducah?"...(more)

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[uppityperson]

2. Thanks. I don't know enough about this law, hoping someone here might

I hold rather strong opinions re Steven Green, but don't know this law.

Perhaps I should have put "octomom" or "obama" in the subject line?

[qazplm]

3. problem is

once you fully leave military service (and there are all sorts of loopholes to gain jurisdiction) you can't be tried by the military later because there is no jurisdiction.

Thus if you say you can't use MEJA, then there is no jurisdiction over his alleged crimes and he is never tried.

[uppityperson]

4. That is my question, can he get tried by military like his "buddies" were, for

crimes committed when active duty, or do those crimes simply disappear since he was discharged? Seems there should be some way of holding former military responsible for their crimes, but I don't know enough of how it all works.

I guess Iraq could ask to extradite him and try him there, but don't think that would happen.