Fort Hood shooting suspect seeks trial delay

[longknife]

by Associated Press, & kvue.com, Posted on May 9, 2013 at 8:06 AM

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- Just three weeks before he's to stand trial for the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, an Army psychiatrist wants his trial delayed until this fall.

This originally came from the Urban Grounds blog and the blogger was just as angry as I about this. 4 years and he STILL hasn't gone to trial? And – he's STILL drawing a military paycheck!!! Read more of this absurdity @ Fort Hood shooting suspect seeks trial delay | kvue.com Austin

And then comes this great news –

No delay for trial of Fort Hood shooting suspect

The Army psychiatrist charged with gunning down 13 people during the 2009 rampage at Fort Hood is scheduled to go on trial this month after a military judge denied his request Thursday for another delay.

More @ No delay for trial of Fort Hood shooting suspect | Military Times | militarytimes.com

 

[waltky]

Ft. Hood shooter trial comin' up...

Complicated, emotional trial draws near for victims of Fort Hood shooting
August 2, 2013 > In each of his nightmares, the 6-foot-9, 300-pound former Army sergeant fights with the man accused of shooting him and nearly four dozen others in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre. “Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose,” Alonzo Lunsford said.

As the court-martial begins Tuesday and Lunsford takes the witness stand, he’ll have to face the man in person. Maj. Nidal Hasan is representing himself at trial. There will be no defense lawyer as a buffer between the victims and the defendant. Instead, Hasan will be the one to cross examine the men and women who say they were attacked by him in a shooting spree that turned a base clinic into what one victim called “the worst horror movie you could possibly ever see.” Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of premeditated attempted murder for the events of Nov. 5, 2009.

Lunsford was shot in the face near his left eye and then four more times as he fell to the floor. He testified at the Article 32 hearing that Hasan looked him in the eye as he raised his weapon and fired. In the courtroom this week when he testifies, Lunsford fears Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, will play mental games with his questions — try to get in his head and use his post-traumatic stress disorder against him. Essentially, try to terrorize him all over again. Military law experts said keeping Hasan in line while still allowing him to present a vigorous defense will be one of the toughest aspects of what was already a complicated court-martial given the death penalty is on the table. “It’s a mess,” Victor Hansen, vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said. “I would expect the judge will be much more active than she otherwise would be in the case.”

In the military system, it’s rare, even in run of the mill cases, for a defendant to represent himself, and Hensen said there hasn’t been a case of someone representing himself in a death penalty case in the modern era. The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, will have to “walk a fine line about giving him a little bit of leeway so he doesn’t feel like he’s sat on and can say nothing without letting it turn into a circus where he gets to say whatever he wants,” Hansen said. Some lawyers who have watched the case closely and many of the victims said they suspect the reason Hasan elected to represent himself is to use the courtroom as his soapbox to espouse radical Islam. “I’m sure he’ll use every opportunity he can get to spout his views and beliefs. That’s what he’s done so far,” said Shawn Manning, a medically retired Army staff sergeant who was shot six times at Hood that day.

John Galligan, who used to act as civilian counsel for Hasan, said he empathizes with Hasan’s desire to represent himself after having a falling out about his line of defense with his military attorneys, who asked to be taken off the case. The military lawyers didn’t agree that Hasan should present a “defense of others,” in which he would have argued he justifiably attacked the soldiers in an effort to protect the Taliban. The dozens of soldiers shot at Fort Hood were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. “I fully understand him thinking, ‘I might as well be by myself if my attorneys don’t support me,’” Galligan said. Once he decided to represent himself, Hasan asked and was denied by the judge the use of the “defense of others” strategy. Osborne ruled that there wasn’t a proper legal basis for that defense.

MORE

See also:

Bill would cut off salaries of military personnel accused of crimes
August 4, 2013 — Some members of Congress think it’s time to cut off the cash to Army Maj. Nidal Hasan.

On the eve of opening statements in the court-martial of Hasan, the defendant in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, lawmakers have proposed suspending military pay for service men and women charged with certain crimes. They say they are frustrated that Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with multiple counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder in one of the worst mass shootings on a military base, has received paychecks totaling nearly $300,000 while locked up. “It is outrageous that taxpayers continue to pay an accused terrorist that killed more than a dozen people,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. “Does anyone think this make sense? You are innocent until proven guilty in this country, but that doesn’t mean you should be rewarded while awaiting trial.”

The Stop Pay for Violent Offenders Act has been filed in the U.S. House — to let the military suspend pay for those arrested and charged with rape, sexual assault or a capital offense — by Reps. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., Tom Rooney, R-Fla., and Frank Wolf, R-Va. “The fact that the sole suspect in this attack, Nidal Hasan, a major in the U.S. Army, has continued to draw his Army salary — costing taxpayers more than $278,000 — is outrageous,” Griffin said.

Current law lets the military stop paying civilian employees, but officials say they can’t stop paying military members on active service, such as Hasan, unless they are convicted. “This bill would correct a huge oversight that has allowed military personnel charged with a serious crime to continue to receive their pay while awaiting trial,” Wolf said. “Does anybody really think it’s right that Nidal Hasan has collected more than $200,000 in taxpayer dollars since being charged in the Fort Hood shootings?”

The bill is drawing mixed reactions. It would withhold military members’ salaries during the court process, but anyone acquitted would receive full salary payment. “Our bill is simple – if you’re awaiting trial for a serious crime, you can’t collect a salary from the American taxpayer,” said Rooney, a former prosecutor at Fort Hood.

Source

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says leave him alone an' let him run his own defense - he's doin' a fine job of it...

Defense Lawyer: Fort Hood Shooter Wants Death Penalty
August 07, 2013 — The trial of accused Fort Hood, Texas, shooter Major Nidal Hasan came to a halt Wednesday when the three standby defense attorneys assisting him told the judge Hasan is trying to get the death penalty. The judge may have to reconsider her previous decision to allow Hasan to defend himself.

Defense attorneys appointed by the court to help defend Major Hasan asked presiding Judge Colonel Tara Osborn to modify their role because they say the defendant is actively seeking conviction and the death penalty. Lead defense attorney Lieutenant Colonel Kris Poppe said they should not be forced to assist him in achieving that. Hasan expressed disagreement with the assessment by his attorneys, and Judge Osborn said she found their request confusing. She told the attorneys who had described Hasan's performance in court as "repugnant" and "inadequate" that it could be that they just disagree with his strategy. Osborn then ordered a recess until Thursday so she could consider the matter.

Jeffrey Addicott, a military law expert at the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, says the attorneys are probably right about Hasan wanting to be executed, but adds the attorneys must also think of their professional responsibility to prevent the death penalty from being imposed on their client. "Their very role is to protect his rights, so instead of suggesting things to Hasan, which they could as standby counsel, I believe that they are asking the judge, 'Look, we are just going to be standby, if he wants to ask us a question, we will respond to that, but we don't want to participate in a circus,"' said Addicott.

In early June, Judge Osborn granted Hasan's request to defend himself, but required his legal team to remain in court on standby to assist him with procedural questions and research. Not having such assistance available, legal experts say, could open the way for a possible appeal later, even though Hasan chose to defend himself. But, if the judge agrees that Hasan's handling of his own defense has been faulty, she could reverse her previous decision and bring the appointed lawyers back to full duty.

Hasan has not followed a standard defense strategy. Several weeks ago, he asked for, and was denied, permission to use a "defense of others" argument that the shooting was justified as an attack on soldiers who were, in his view, fighting against Islam in Afghanistan and Iraq. In court on Tuesday, he admitted to having committed the crime and asked few questions of witnesses in cross-examination.

Defense Lawyer: Fort Hood Shooter Wants Death Penalty

 

[longknife]

I've thought long and hard about this.

For most of the time, I've strongly felt the scumbag deserves either the noose or a firing squad.

Now, the more I think of it, perhaps he should be sentenced to life in prison without ever being released.

Why?

Well, he's paralyzed and confined in a way as bad as a jail cell.

And removing the death penalty denies him martyrdom and his whatever number of virgins. And, he would spend the remainder of his miserable life knowing he failed to do what he wanted to.

 

[whitehall]

Based on a mid level US Army Major pay grade it seems that the jihad Major has been compensated around 280,000 by US taxpayers since he murdered 13 of his own men and wounded 30. I imagine the rest of the world is laughing at us.