Death penalty dropped against soldier (rape/murder of Abeer)

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - The U.S. Army dropped the death penalty Wednesday as a possible sentence for a soldier charged with rape and murder in the deaths of 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.

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.

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

"We look forward to trial and proving that Jesse was not involved in rape and murder," attorney Craig Carlson, who leads Spielman's defense team, told The Associated Press by telephone.

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