A former US soldier convicted of rape and murder in Iraq has been spared the death penalty. Steven Green, 24, will now be sentenced to life in prison, after jurors in the state of Kentucky could not agree unanimously on his punishment. A judge is expected to formally sentence Green in September.

In May, the jury found Green guilty of the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her and her family near Baghdad in 2006.

Are we going soft on a murderer simply because he happened to rape and murder not a US citizen but a Iraqi cicitizen? Would the penalty have been different had he done what he did in US? To US citizens? My guess is as good as yours.