Court martial recommended for Fort Hood shooting suspect

[Robb]

Source: Reuters

Reuters) - A U.S. Army official has recommended that the Army major charged in the 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas Army base face a court martial and possible death penalty charges, the Army said on Friday.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a 40-year-old Army psychiatrist who U.S. officials linked to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen, is charged in a shooting spree at Fort Hood that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others on November 5, 2009.

Colonel Morgan Lamb, a Fort Hood brigade commander, forwarded his non-binding recommendation to Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander who will have the final word on setting a possible court martial.

"We can confirm that Lamb did recommend that the charges pending against Hasan be sent to a general court-marital authorized to consider capital punishment," the Fort Hood public affairs office said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/05/us-usa-shooting-texas-idUSTRE72374Y20110305

[MilesColtrane]

1. The Army shouldn't make this guy a martyr.

Give him life in ADMAX Florence.

[Psephos]

2. Life in ADMAX trumps execution as a cruelty, imo.

I say that as someone who opposes capital punishment.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. The US Military more or less ignores the death penalty

Too much administrative overhead in a short staffed military justice system for something they just don't care about, they don't need to look tough on crime. Even with the Bush administration beating the drum only a single case was submitted for presidential confirmation which has subsequently been ignored since it was appealed.