This Will Be A Circus: Trial of Nidal Hasan At Fort Hood, Starts Today
4 years on, the trial finally begins. Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of premeditated attempted murder. The government has not called his acts terrorism or charged him under those laws, something the victims have sued to change in order to receive certain military benefits. He is subject to the death penalty. The last active duty military personnel executed occurred in 1961.
The soldier accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood nearly four years ago will go on trial Tuesday.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who has said the United States is at war with Islam will be representing himself in court, faces the possibility of a death sentence in the military trial for the killing spree at the Texas military base.
According to prosecution, Hasan, then a 39-year-old psychiatrist in the Army, walked into a waiting room for soldiers undergoing routine processing on Nov. 5, 2009 and began firing a semi-automatic pistol, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others. A responding civilian police officer ultimately shot Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of his injuries.
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By representing himself, Hasan, who has twice fired his court-issued attorneys, will be able to cross-examine the very victims he fired on and, if he chooses, testify on the stand.
“Everything else about his conduct during the process leading up to this trial suggests that he will want to give a speech. And if he does it’s likely to be highly inflammatory and disturbing,” said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School.
Read more: http://nation.time.com/2013/08/06/trial-of-nidal-hasan-accused-fort-hood-shooter-begins/#ixzz2bBYdkkPT