Army drops death penalty for rape-murder defendant

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/13/iraq.rape.ap/

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- The Army dropped the death penalty Wednesday as a possible sentence for a soldier charged with rape and murder in the deaths of a 14-year-old girl and three others in Iraq.

Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 22, now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted, said Maj. Don Lobeda, an attorney with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Spielman, one of four soldiers charged in the March 12 attack in Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad, sat motionless as charges were read during an arraignment hearing. An April 2 trial date was set.

Investigators said the soldiers tried to burn the girl's body to destroy evidence of the assault.

[marmar]

1. I'm opposed to the death penalty, so this is OK with me, but....

if the situation had been reversed, and an Iraqi man was the offender..... :think:

[silverojo]

2. I'm not opposed to the death penalty

And I think this evil, murdering b*stard should be on death row. Or better yet, let's just turn him over to Iraq, and let THEM sentence and punish this SOB...!

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. for all practical purposes the US military doesn't have the death penalty,

To put things in perspective, the last execution in Canada is more recent than the last execution in the US Military. Nor does the US military justice bueracracy have any particular interest in administering it.

The death penalty in the US military was re-imposed in 1984 by an executive order by Reagan which has been ignored ever since. The secretary of the Army proposed new regulations for military executions, also which have been ignored.

Since these people don't have to stand for election and look tough on crime, they couldn't care less.