Soldier pleads guilty to rapping and killing Iraqi girl - UPDATED 11/16

[MedicCook]

Soldier pleads guilty in Iraq killings

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- One of four U.S. soldiers accused of raping an Iraqi girl last spring and killing her and her family pleaded guilty Wednesday and will testify against the others.

Spc. James P. Barker agreed to the plea deal to avoid the death penalty, said his civilian attorney, David Sheldon.

The killings in Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad, were among the worst in a series of alleged attacks on civilians and other abuses by military personnel in Iraq.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez and Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, both members of the 101st Airborne Division with Barker, could face the death penalty if convicted in the case in courts-martial at Fort Campbell.

Former Army private Steve Green, 21, pleaded not guilty last week to charges including murder and sexual assault.

Green was discharged from the Army for a "personality disorder" before the allegations became known, and prosecutors have yet to say if they will pursue the death penalty against him.

The indictment accuses Green and others of raping the 14-year-old girl and burning her body to conceal their crimes. It also alleges that Green and four others stationed at a nearby checkpoint killed the girl's father, mother and 6-year-old sister.

Barker has given investigators vivid accounts of the assault. An investigator testified during a hearing in August that Barker had said the soldiers drank whiskey and played cards while plotting the assault, that Barker, Cortez and Green took turns raping the girl, and that Green shot her and her family.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/15/iraq.slaying.ap/index.html

[MedicCook]

Soldier gets life in rape of Iraqi girl and killings of family

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/US/11/16/iraq.slaying.ap/story.mahmoudiya.ap.jpg
The rape and killing of a 14-year-old took place in this room of a house in Mahmoudiya, Iraq.

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- A soldier was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for conspiring to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and kill her and her family.

Spc. James P. Barker, one of four Fort Campbell soldiers accused in the March 12 rape and killings, pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to testify against the others to avoid the death penalty.

Under terms of the plea agreement, Barker will not serve more than 90 years in prison and has the possibility of parole, said Lt. Col. Richard Anderson, the military judge presiding over the court-martial. (Watch Barker's lawyer discuss soldier's feelings about case -- 2:04)

"This court sentences you to be confined for the length of your natural life, with the eligibility of parole," Anderson said.

Barker showed no reaction when the sentence was read.

After the court-martial concluded, Barker went outside to smoke a cigarette. A military bailiff accompanied him.

Barker grinned but made no remarks as reporters passed by.

Military prosecutors declined to comment because three other soldiers have yet to be tried in the case.

Defense attorneys planned to speak to reporters to discuss their reaction to the ruling.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, accompanied by his two military attorneys, was the only other accused soldier in the room when the sentence was announced.

Barker had earlier described how he was approached by a fellow soldier with the plan to carry out the rape and killings.

Barker told the military judge he was drinking whiskey purchased from Iraqi soldiers with 21-year-old Army Pvt. Steve Green, who has since been discharged, when Green proposed attacking the family.

"He brought it up to me and asked me what I thought about it," Barker said. "By the time we started changing clothes, it was more or less a nonverbal agreement that we were going to go along with what we were discussing."

'I hated Iraqis'
At one point, the judge asked Barker why he had decided with the other soldiers to commit the rape and murders.

"I hated Iraqis, your honor," Barker said. "They can smile at you, then shoot you in your face without even thinking about it."

Barker, 23, described changing clothes, then climbing through backyards as the five soldiers left the checkpoint they had been manning to carry out the attack.

"We went through a chain link fence on the back of the property that had been cut on a previous patrol," he said.

The killings in Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad, were among the worst in a series of alleged attacks on civilians and other abuses by military personnel in Iraq.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, and Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 22, members of the 101st Airborne Division along with Barker, have also been charged in the case.

Cortez has deferred entering a plea and Spielman will be arraigned in December. Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, 19, also deferred entering a plea at his arraignment in October.

Green pleaded not guilty last week to civilian charges that included murder and sexual assault.

He was discharged from the Army for a "personality disorder" before the allegations became known, and prosecutors have yet to say if they will pursue the death penalty against him.

Barker described in vivid detail how he raped the 14-year-old girl with Cortez and Green. Green killed the girl, her younger sister and parents, Barker testified.

"Cortez pushed her to the ground. I went towards the top of her and kind of held her hands down while Cortez proceeded to lift her dress up," he said. "Around that time I heard shots coming from a room next door."

The defendants are accused of burning the girl's body to conceal the crime.

Howard, Cortez and Spielman could face the death penalty if convicted. Cortez and Spielman are both being held in confinement and Howard is restricted to post.

Attorney: It could happen again
Barker did not name Spielman and Howard as participants in the rape and murders, but said they were at the house when the assault took place and had come knowing what the others intended to do.

The soldiers were stationed in a violent area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of frequent attacks on soldiers patrolling the roads.

Soldiers in Barker's unit were often asked to spend weeks manning remote checkpoints, where several from the unit died.

Barker's attorney, David Sheldon, told reporters during a news conference following the hearing that Barker took responsibility for his actions, but he also said the U.S. Army was to blame for the way the war in Iraq was being fought.

"The United States Army did not ... put enough soldiers on the checkpoints," Sheldon said. "It's very important that the public knows that this type of thing can happen again if the Army doesn't take measures to put enough troops on the front line in the war against terrorism, the war in Iraq."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/16/iraq.slaying.ap/index.html

[Ashley]

it says one of them was discharged for a personality disorder. why is it that whenever somebody does crazy shit to another person, they can just say they have something wrong with them and pretty much be let go of what they did? people are sick anyway.