EKB News

A federal appeals court has set oral arguments in January for a former U.S. Army soldier convicted in civilian court of rape and murder in Iraq. A three-judge panel from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case of 25-year-old Steven Dale Green on Jan. 21, 2011, in Cincinnati.

Green, once a member of the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne, is challenging his convictions in the March 2006 rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slaying of her family while he was on active duty. Green's lawyers say the law used to prosecute him, the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, is unconstitutional. Federal prosecutors say the law passes constitutional muster. A federal judge in Paducah last year ordered Green, of Midland, Texas, to serve five life sentences in the killings.