Should Pfc. Steven Green be executed?

Drifterwood

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US ex-soldier convicted of Iraq rape and killings - Americas, World - The Independent

Green premeditated the murder of the parents and younger sister of a fourteen year old girl, whom his friends raped whilst he killed the rest of the family. He then raped her and murdered her when he was done.

So I would have thought that by US standards this guy was headed for death. Personally I would send him back to Iraq to serve a life means life life sentence.
 

canuck_pa

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I don't believe in capital punishment but this guy should serve "life" meaning never a chance for parole and put in general population of the prison. The other prisoners will take care of him.
 

B_Hickboy

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Word to my government: Don't kill anybody in my name. Period. He should be sentenced to life without parole. There is no context in which it is appropriate for one human being to kill another, except in defense against a direct and present threat.
 

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No one should ever be executed, regardless of the crime.

Concerning Pfc. Steven Green, the article says that he was discharged from the army because of a personality disorder before he was charged with the Iraq crimes. It also states that several soldiers from his unit were killed in the weeks prior to the incident. So, the man was already unstable to begin with and the resulting deaths of his comrades could only have taken a very negative blow on his psyche. He can't and shouldn't be held fully accountable for his actions. The death penalty is far and beyond what he deserves (not that anyone should ever deserve it), but even a life sentence would be slightly pushing it.

The real issue here is why those soldiers are/were even there to begin with. The crime was committed in 2006, long after whatever mission they were set out to do was completed (Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003 and that's what I presume their goal was). The only ones to blame are those who sent and kept those soldiers there in Iraq.
 

Drifterwood

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I agree Hick and have been a lifelong cammpaigner against the death penalty. But they have the death penalty where he has been convicted.

Do you think that they will use it to give him his own rendezvous with destiny?
 

Drifterwood

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Concerning Pfc. Steven Green, the article says that he was discharged from the army because of a personality disorder before he was charged with the Iraq crimes. It also states that several soldiers from his unit were killed in the weeks prior to the incident. So, the man was already unstable to begin with and the resulting deaths of his comrades could only have taken a very negative blow on his psyche. He can't and shouldn't be held fully accountable for his actions. The death penalty is far and beyond what he deserves (not that anyone should ever deserve it), but even a life sentence would be slightly pushing it.

I don't buy it and nor did the Jury. He wanted to kill Iraqis. They premeditated the attack after the loss of comrades, but it was spiked with the desire to rape a child. Is rape standard revenge in 101 Airborne?

This was a war crime and murder.

It is also far too convenient that the Army dismissed him, basically washing their hands of him, but not the others who are in military prison for raping a minor. Were they not accessories to murder also?
 

jason_els

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No. I don't believe governments should have the power to kill their own citizens no matter what the reason.

I've always found it odd that many conservatives constantly harp on how government officials can't be trusted to order a box of paper clips yet trust them to take the lives of people.
 

B_Nick8

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I wrestle with this issue. There are some crimes that are so heinous, so premeditated, so cruel that (a relatively painless) death seems fitting to me and this seems to be one of them. Yet, I don't like myself for feeling that way and I can't really justify it in the face of the arguments of the previous posters. I think perhaps you're better people than I.
 

Ethyl

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I agree Hick and have been a lifelong cammpaigner against the death penalty. But they have the death penalty where he has been convicted.

Do you think that they will use it to give him his own rendezvous with destiny?

I'm against the death penalty because of the methods used as well as all the other arguments. If you're in another country you have an obligation to follow that country's laws. If you don't, then...
 

LeeEJ

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"Green's defense team had asked them to consider the 'context' of war, saying soldiers in Green's unit of the 101st Airborne Division lacked leadership."

If there are two soldiers in the room, one of them is in charge. "Lacked leadership" my ass.

Hang that fucker. Hang the ones who conspired with him, too. We're supposed to be better than this.
 

mitchymo

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I wrestle with this issue. There are some crimes that are so heinous, so premeditated, so cruel that (a relatively painless) death seems fitting to me and this seems to be one of them. Yet, I don't like myself for feeling that way and I can't really justify it in the face of the arguments of the previous posters. I think perhaps you're better people than I.

I tend to feel this way too....i dont feel less better for it tho and neither should you.
I dont feel that the death penalty is wrong as a method of punishment but i also think it is pointless....its what they deserve but it is not good enough to end their lives humanely....i think that hard labor should be reintroduced....get them to build a pyramid in honour of victims of fatal crime or something....i dunno, i hate the evil people.....but is it sadistic of me? I am lost as to how you serve justice that is 'just' without lowering morality of the enforcers of that punishment
 

pym

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I truly look forward to the day when "THE LAW" is a common and immutable thing that is completely understood by ALL human beings.
How it is that after some 5000 years or so that "LAW" from Hammurabi on through to the Uniform code of military justice is not completely codified as universal throughout the planet in the year 2009 is to me, one of the greatest failings of mankind. Human kind MUST convene together and agree to universal law. If this were to be the case, No one who has committed a crime that merits capital punishment, would ever be executed in "ANYONE's NAME". The punishment would fit the crime.
That being said.....The military has always provided capital punishment as an ultimate penalty for certain transgressions. As have many other societys and military. I myself, do not always agree with the outcomes of trials that i have been familiar with in my 47 years. For the most part, i am a staunch humanitarian.
Were we as a planet to agree to common law that knows no borders, I would not be opposed to Capital Punishment as penalty for the worst 'Agreed To' transgressions.
I can not help but think, that the crime commited against that Iraqi family, would be amongst the crimes that would merit such a punishment.
For a good deal of the human race......the decision to live with-in the law or to break it......is greatly decided by consideration of the consequences.
 

dong20

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I wrestle with this issue. There are some crimes that are so heinous, so premeditated, so cruel that (a relatively painless) death seems fitting to me and this seems to be one of them. Yet, I don't like myself for feeling that way and I can't really justify it in the face of the arguments of the previous posters. I think perhaps you're better people than I.

I think you're doing yourself an injustice.

The simple fact that a person [you in this instance] feels bad about 'desiring' the death of another, even if that person has committed appalling acts - is confirmation of [your] humanity, not repudiation.

No one should feel good about the intentional, premeditated killing of another.

Intellectually I am opposed to the death penalty - on the rationale that if deliberately killing another human is wrong and I believe it is. The belief that if it's wrong for me to kill, then it's wrong for the state to kill.

The state has a right to punish, but it doesn't have a right to be vengeful, even if that vengence is perpetrated for the 'right' reasons.

Deterrence effect aside (which it clearly isn't), it's still wrong.

Which leads me to a dilemma; were someone to do something this to a person I cared about or a member of my famly - how would I react, would I want vengence? Let's just say that I'm grateful that punishment for such crimes isn't the responsibility of its victims, or their family.

The temptation to react in kind is entirely Human, and because it is we must resist it, or if we can't then we must embrace our own limitations and accept that we (individually or collectively) may be incapable of growing beyond being the self obsessed, violent creatures we too often are.

The above sums up my feeling on the subject. It was posted by me a while back but I still feel the same way.
 

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I don't buy it and nor did the Jury. He wanted to kill Iraqis. They premeditated the attack after the loss of comrades, but it was spiked with the desire to rape a child. Is rape standard revenge in 101 Airborne?

This was a war crime and murder.

It is also far too convenient that the Army dismissed him, basically washing their hands of him, but not the others who are in military prison for raping a minor. Were they not accessories to murder also?

Murder is never justifiable, but some are more excusable than others. Because of Green's situation and circumstances, I believe it would be unfair to punish him in the same way one would punish another person convicted of the same crime(s).
 

mitchymo

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I truly look forward to the day when "THE LAW" is a common and immutable thing that is completely understood by ALL human beings.
How it is that after some 5000 years or so that "LAW" from Hammurabi on through to the Uniform code of military justice is not completely codified as universal throughout the planet in the year 2009 is to me, one of the greatest failings of mankind. Human kind MUST convene together and agree to universal law. If this were to be the case, No one who has committed a crime that merits capital punishment, would ever be executed in "ANYONE's NAME". The punishment would fit the crime.
That being said.....The military has always provided capital punishment as an ultimate penalty for certain transgressions. As have many other societys and military. I myself, do not always agree with the outcomes of trials that i have been familiar with in my 47 years. For the most part, i am a staunch humanitarian.
Were we as a planet to agree to common law that knows no borders, I would not be opposed to Capital Punishment as penalty for the worst 'Agreed To' transgressions.
I can not help but think, that the crime commited against that Iraqi family, would be amongst the crimes that would merit such a punishment.
For a good deal of the human race......the decision to live with-in the law or to break it......is greatly decided by consideration of the consequences.

Well said!

Problem with this tho is that not everybody is mentally on the same wavelength, some not responsible enough to understand the consequences on one extreme and complete disregard and carelessness on the other.
 

bigbull29

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No, he shouldn't be executed. I am opposed to the death penalty and abortion. Life is so precious that killing is only acceptable in self-defense.

I support life the whole way around the clock. Too bad the Far Right and Far Left can't do the same. They have to pick one over the other. What a shame!
 

B_Hickboy

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I agree Hick and have been a lifelong cammpaigner against the death penalty. But they have the death penalty where he has been convicted.

Do you think that they will use it to give him his own rendezvous with destiny?
Well, they used it on Timothy McVeigh, so there is that precedent. As far as my knowing whether they will or won't, I'm glad I'm not sitting on the jury. If I were, we'd walk out of there with at least eleven people really pissed off at me.
 

B_Hickboy

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*snip*what they deserve *snip*
Yeah, you make good sense, but allowing one person or group of people to say that another person or group of people deserves to die puts everybody on a slippery slope. "Deserve" is a subjective word. The death penalty doesn't serve anyone's best interests. It doesn't bring back the victims, and it doesn't work as a deterrent. If it did, we wouldn't still be using it as a punishment; we'd have killed enough people by now to set an example and everybody would have gotten the message.
 

Mem

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Yes kill him. He is no better than a serial or spree killer. Show him the same mercy that he showed the people that he raped and killed.
 

B_Hickboy

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Yes kill him. He is no better than a serial or spree killer. Show him the same mercy that he showed the people that he raped and killed.
If you've ever watched a human being die, you might feel different. I have. It's ugly and messy, no matter what form it takes. If you had to press the plunger or pull the trigger or flip the switch yourself, you might get a tad squeamish.

Yes, he's no better than a serial or spree killer, but he's also no worse than you or me. At least, his life is worth as much as yours or mine, and is therefore precious. The right to exist is something that has never been in your power to grant or deny anyone.