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HONOLULU (AP) — Jurors who decided the fate of a former soldier convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter said their labored deliberations ended with eight of them wanting him sentenced to death and four of them wanting him to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Because they couldn't agree, Naeem Williams will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility for release for the 2005 beating death of his daughter, Talia.

Weighing the decision meant considering the violent beatings Williams said he inflicted on Talia to discipline her for bathroom accidents, graphic descriptions that one juror said will haunt him forever.

"I have a 4 1/2-year-old granddaughter, and for the rest of my life in her I'm going to see the girl," juror Clarence Kaona told The Associated Press. "I'll never get those autopsy pictures out of my mind."

He voted for the death penalty.

"I'm a little disappointed," he said. "I feel like we let the girl down."

It was the same jury that convicted Williams of murder in April that deliberated for about seven days before deciding they couldn't agree on a sentence. An indication of their turmoil was their announcement that they had reached their verdict Thursday afternoon but wanted to wait until Friday morning to read it because some of them were "emotionally drained."

The concept of sending someone to his death is unfamiliar in Hawaii, where capital punishment was abolished in 1957, before the islands became a state. But this jury had to make that decision because Williams' crime occurred in military housing and he was tried in the federal court system, where the death penalty is available.

"It is difficult to obtain a death penalty in a state such as Hawaii where the people have not voted for the death penalty on a state level," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

"This is a difficult crime, a child, but the death penalty is a huge step," he said. "It's a punishment that for some states is outside of their standards."

U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright set an Oct. 14 hearing to formally sentence Williams.

Williams was bracing for the death penalty, his attorney John Philipsborn said. "Both of us were relieved," Philipsborn said. "I think he was very grateful for the outcome."

After the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Ching, who handled the case, and Florence Nakakuni, the U.S. attorney for Hawaii, hugged outside the courtroom. Ching got a kiss from his wife.

"We put forth the best case we had, and we respect the verdict," said Steve Mellin, trial attorney with the Justice Department's capital case section.

Talia's mother, Tarshia Williams, told the AP by phone she was glad her daughter got justice.

"Even though they're deadlocked, I still feel that I've got some kind of closure that the trial is finally over, because I had to wait nine long years, and that was hard," she said.

She said she believes the government could have done more to help her daughter, since military police had shown up at the house for various domestic incidents. Williams has a lawsuit pending against the U.S. government that was put on hold pending the criminal trial. The government has denied that officials failed to protect Talia from the abuse that caused her death.

Williams and Talia's stepmother, Delilah Williams, testified that they beat the girl almost daily during the seven months she lived with them in Hawaii.

During the sentencing phase, Naeem Williams' family, including his 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, told jurors they love him and that his life has value. Naeem Williams read a statement to jurors apologizing for killing Talia and asking them to let him live.

The deliberation process required the jurors to consider a long list of mitigating factors the defense presented as reasons to spare his life — including physical discipline his stepfather inflicted, his overseas Army service, and his low IQ. According to the special findings form the jury filled out, all 12 jurors believed the stepfather's discipline, military service and never knowing his biological father were factors to consider. Only one juror wanted to consider his intellectual disability.

The all agreed Delilah Williams influenced the violence her husband inflicted on Talia.

Delilah Williams testified against her husband as part of a deal with prosecutors for a 20-year sentence. She provided disturbing details of abuse that included withholding food for days at a time and beating the child while she was duct-taped to a bed.

Talia died July 16, 2005, after prosecutors say her father dealt a blow so hard it left knuckle imprints on her chest.

Seabright scheduled Delilah Williams' sentencing for July 8. She didn't want her husband to get the death penalty, said her federal public defender, Alexander Silvert.

"I spoke to her today, and she was very relieved," Silvert said.

The Bureau of Prisons will determine where Naeem Williams serves his life sentence, based on factors including his security level and medical needs.

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Associated Press writers Cathy Bussewitz and Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report. Jennifer Sinco Kelleher can be reached at http://twitter.com/JenHapa .

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's feuding political leaders are under mounting pressure to set aside their differences after a call by the country's most revered Shiite cleric for an agreement on the next prime minister before parliament meets next week.

The appeal by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Friday came as the country seems increasingly in danger of falling apart, with the al-Qaida breakaway group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant having seized much of northern and western Iraq and the Kurds asserting control over long-disputed territories outside their autonomous region.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's bloc won the most seats in April's election, but he is now fighting for his job, with even fellow Shiite allies and key patron Iran exploring alternatives to replace him. Critics have charged al-Maliki with monopolizing power and failing to address long-festering grievances by the Sunni minority.

But al-Maliki, who has governed the country since 2006, has proven to be a savvy and hard-nosed politician, and so far he has shown no willingness to step aside.

Less than three years after the last American troops left Iraq, Washington has found itself being pulled back in, with drones now flying over Baghdad to protect American civilians and newly deployed U.S. military forces.

Washington has stopped short of demanding al-Maliki step aside, but in what is widely seen as veiled criticism of his divisive leadership, has called for a more inclusive government.

Al-Maliki personally won the most votes in April, and his State of Law bloc won the most seats by far, but he failed to gain the majority needed to govern alone, leaving him in need of allies to retain his post.

That has set the stage for what could be months of arduous coalition negotiations. After 2010 elections, it took Iraqi politicians nine months to agree on a new prime minister. Now, unlike four years ago, the territorial cohesion of Iraq is at stake.

Seizing on the sense of urgency, Sistani called on politicians to agree on the next prime minister, parliament speaker and president by the time the new legislature meets on Tuesday, a cleric who represents him said in a Friday sermon.

Doing so would be a "prelude to the political solution that everyone seeks at the present," the cleric, Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie told worshippers in the holy city of Karbala.

The reclusive al-Sistani, the most revered figure among Iraqi Shiites, rarely appears or speaks in public, instead delivering messages through other clerics or, less frequently, issuing edicts.

In Washington, the Obama administration backed al-Sistani's call for Iraqi leaders to agree on a new government "without delay."

"It's my understanding he was calling for a process that's in line with the constitution, just to do it very quickly," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. "Which we certainly agree with because we think the situation is so serious that they need to move with urgency."

Still, the probability that Iraq's deeply divided political class can mend its differences in the span of days is unlikely.

The United States and other world powers have pressed al-Maliki to reach out to the country's Sunni and Kurdish minorities. Sunnis have long complained of being discriminated against and unfairly targeted by the security forces.

The Islamic State has taken advantage of Sunni discontent to fuel its rise. The group's stunning advance earlier this month, in which it seized Iraq's second largest city Mosul and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, was made possible in part because Iraqi security forces melted away in the face of the onslaught.

The United States has already deployed 180 of 300 troops promised by President Barack Obama to assist and advise Iraqi troops. The U.S. also has started flying armed Predator drones over Baghdad to protect U.S. interests in the Iraqi capital, a Pentagon official said Friday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the new flights on the record.

On Friday, al-Maliki warned army commanders in televised comments that militants were likely to try to undermine security in the Iraqi capital ahead of Tuesday's parliamentary session.

But he struck an upbeat tone about the military situation, saying the armed forces have regained the initiative and are now on the offensive, citing a Thursday raid on the militant-held city of Tikrit as an example.

Two Iraqi security officials, meanwhile, said several secondhand Sukhoi fighter jets the government purchased from Russia will arrive within days at an air base in southern Iraq. Iraq's air force, which has been decimated over the past two decades, had Sukhoi jets in its fleet before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

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Associated Press writer Hamza Hendawi in Baghdad and Pauline Jelinek and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is poised to deliver its verdict in a case that weighs the religious rights of employers and the right of women to the birth control of their choice.

The court meets for a final time Monday to release its two remaining decisions before the justices take off for the summer.

One case involves birth control coverage under President Barack Obama's health law. Employers must cover contraception for women at no extra charge among a range of preventive benefits in employee health plans. Dozens of companies, including arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, claim religious objections to covering some or all contraceptives.

The other case before the court deals with fees paid to labor unions representing government employees by workers who object to being affiliated with a union.

RIDGELAND, Miss. (AP) — A tea party official charged with conspiring to take photos of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's wife inside a nursing home apparently committed suicide Friday, police said, days after Cochran won a nasty Republican primary.

The body of attorney Mark Mayfield was found Friday morning in the garage of his two-story, brick home in a gated community outside Jackson. A gun was found nearby, Ridgeland Police Chief Jimmy Houston said. Houston says Mayfield had been shot, and a suicide note was found at the scene.

"Everything we see so far, this appears to be a suicide," Houston said.

Mayfield's death came just days after tea party-backed state Sen. Chris McDaniel was defeated by Cochran in the Republican Senate runoff. Mayfield had been a board member of the Central Mississippi Tea Party and had raised money for McDaniel's campaign.

Mayfield faced a conspiracy charge, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for a conviction, after allegations he and others conspired to take photos of 72-year-old Rose Cochran at the nursing where she has lived since 2001. The photos were later used in an anti-Cochran political video posted briefly online during the Republican primary.

An additional weight for Mayfield: Under Mississippi court rules he could have lost his law license if convicted and sentenced.

In a statement Friday, McDaniel, who has denied any connection to the photos, praised Mayfield.

"Regardless of recent allegations made against his character, Mark Mayfield was a fine Christian man who was always respectful and kind. He was one of the most polite and humble men I've ever met in politics. He was a loving husband, father, a pillar of his community, and he will be missed. We are saddened by his loss, and we send our thoughts and prayers to his wife, his family and friends," McDaniel said.

Janis Lane, president of the board of the Central Mississippi Tea Party, said she had not seen Mayfield since he was charged, but had been in contact with him by phone and through text messages. She said Mayfield's integrity was important to him, and he sounded like he was feeling pressured by the investigation.

"It was truly a challenging time for him," Lane said, wiping away tears.

Three other men also were arrested last month and face various charges of conspiring to photograph Rose Cochran in the home where she has lived since 2001 with dementia. The Cochran family said she has lost the ability to speak and is receiving hospice care. Police said conservative blogger Clayton Thomas Kelly of Pearl photographed her without permission on Easter Sunday.

In a statement, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant expressed sympathy to the Mayfield family.

"Deborah and I are saddened to hear of the loss of Mark Mayfield. He was a long-time friend, and he will be missed. Our prayers go out to his family in this tragic moment," wrote Bryant, a Republican.

The Cochran campaign also reacted.

"Obviously, this is a tragic and very sad situation. Mark was a good guy. The senator and all of our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends," said Austin Barbour, a strategist and spokesman for the campaign.

Other suspects in the photo plot are elementary school teacher Richard Sager of Laurel and John Mary of Hattiesburg, who took over hosting a conservative talk radio show formerly hosted by McDaniel. McDaniel left the radio job before his election to the Mississippi Senate in 2007.

Lane spoke Friday at the Hinds County Courthouse, where she and other McDaniel supporters were examining poll books to look for examples of crossover voting — people who had voted in the June 3 Democratic primary and in Tuesday's Republican runoff between McDaniel and Cochran.

"He was the finest man," Lane said. "He was an attorney of impeccable character."

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Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi.