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FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - A military judge on Wednesday approved a second U.S. soldier's guilty plea to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slaying of her family.
But in a court-martial later Wednesday, Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, was found not guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.
Cortez had entered a guilty plea Tuesday to four murders, rape and conspiracy to rape. With the approval of the plea agreement by the judge, Col. Stephen R. Henley, Cortez will avoid the death penalty.
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