Related: Taliban Defense Cited in Fort Hood Trial
Also see: Fort Hood survivors to face gunman at trial
Isn't that prejudicing the jury?
"Ft. Hood trial begins with an admission of guilt" by Manny Fernandez | New York Times, August 07, 2013
KILLEEN, Texas — Nearly four years after going on a deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base in 2009, Major Nidal Malik Hasan told a jury of senior Army officers Tuesday that “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.”
In an opening statement that took little more than a minute, Hasan, seated in a wheelchair and speaking quietly, said that there was death and destruction on both sides, but that the evidence presented by the prosecution would show only one side.
If this was a mutiny by a group of stop-loss soldiers as reported at the time then he is right. It is right in any U.S. court case in any event.
He said the evidence would show that he fought on the “wrong side,” and then switched sides, and he seemed close to offering an apology for the shooting when he said, “We the mujahedeen are imperfect Muslims” trying to establish a perfect religion. He added, “I apologize for any mistakes I’ve made in this endeavor.”
He did not elaborate. In other statements he has apologized to the Islamic fighters known as the mujahedeen for being part of an Army waging what he described as an immoral war against Muslims....
At this point I found myself wondering how long has this guy been tortured, I mean, in custody and what kind of prescription pharmaceuticals did they fill him with? That "defense" isn't going to fly in an AmeriKan military court.
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Of course, it's not only an immoral war, it's an illegal war in so many ways -- all based on damnable lies.
"Fort Hood shooter wants death penalty" by Nomaan Merchant and Paul J. Weber | Associated Press, August 08, 2013
FORT HOOD, Texas — On the first day Major Nidal Hasan went on trial for his life, he claimed responsibility for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood. He posed no questions to most witnesses. He said the alleged murder weapon was his, even though no one asked.
The Army psychiatrist sometimes took notes while acting as his own attorney, but he mostly looked forward impassively and rarely asked for help as witness after witness said he was the shooter.
By Wednesday, the lawyers ordered to help him said they had had enough — they could not watch him fulfill a death wish.
‘‘It becomes clear his goal is to remove impediments or obstacles to the death penalty and is working toward a death penalty,’’ his lead standby attorney, Lieutenant Colonel Kris Poppe, told the judge. That strategy, he argued, ‘‘is repugnant to defense counsel and contrary to our professional obligations.’’
Poppe said he and the other standby lawyers want to take over the case, or if Hasan is allowed to continue on his own, they want their roles minimized so that Hasan could not ask them for help with a strategy they oppose.
Hasan objected, saying: ‘‘That’s a twist of the facts.’’
The exchange prompted the judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, to halt the trial on only its second day. She must now decide what to do next, knowing that all moves she makes will be scrutinized by a military justice system that has overturned most soldiers’ death sentences in the last three decades.
Hasan faces a possible death sentence if convicted of the 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated for the attack on the Texas military post.
‘‘I don’t envy her. She’s on the horns of a dilemma here,’’ said Richard Rosen, a law professor at Texas Tech University and former military prosecutor who attended the first two days of trial. ‘‘I think whatever she does is potentially dangerous, at least from the view of an appellate court.’’
Rosen and other experts said that if Osborn allows Poppe and Hasan’s other standby defense attorneys to take over, the judge could be seen as having unfairly denied Hasan’s right to defend himself, a right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. But if she lets Hasan continue defending himself, she could be depriving him of adequate help from experienced attorneys.
He also noted that it is extremely rare for defendants to represent themselves in military court. ‘‘They don’t want this case to be reversed on appeal,’’ Rosen said. ‘‘The worst thing that can happen would be to retry the case all over again.’’
Giving Poppe a more active role in the case or having him take over the defense could enable Hasan to argue he was denied his right to defend himself, added Victor Hansen, another former military prosecutor who teaches at the New England School of Law.
‘‘At the end of the day, the defendant has the absolute right who’s going to represent him, including deciding to represent himself,’’ Hansen said Wednesday.
Hasan asked questions of just two witnesses during the first day of trial Tuesday, and he delivered an opening statement that lasted barely a minute. Hasan rarely looked at Poppe or another standby attorney, Major Joseph Marcee, though the two lawyers occasionally whispered among themselves.
An expected confrontation between Hasan and a key witness, retired Staff Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford — whom Hasan shot seven times — never materialized. Hasan declined to cross-examine him.
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"Judge orders lawyer to aid Fort Hood defendant; Attorney objects, contends Hasan seeks own death" by Manny Fernandez | New York Times, August 09, 2013
KILLEEN, Texas — The judge overseeing the military trial of the Army psychiatrist charged in a deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood base denied his former lawyers’ request to limit their role in the case on Thursday. The ruling came a day after the lawyers said they could no longer assist him because he was seeking the same goal as prosecutors — to be sentenced to death.
The psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, released his court-appointed Army defense lawyers so he could represent himself, a rare if not unprecedented move in a military capital-punishment case. His three former lawyers remain with in the courtroom as standby counsel.
After Hasan gave an opening statement Tuesday and admitted that he was the gunman, his former lead Army lawyer asked the judge to cut back the lawyers’ involvement, saying that helping him achieve his death-sentence goal violated their ethics as defense lawyers.
On Thursday, the judge said the dispute amounted to a disagreement over strategy between Hasan and his standby counsel. She said that he was competent to represent himself and that the Constitution gave him the right to do so. The judge, Colonel Tara A. Osborn, ordered the lawyers to continue to assist him.
Hasan’s former lead lawyer with the Army Trial Defense Service, Lieutenant Colonel Kris R. Poppe, said he intended to appeal her ruling to a military appellate court.
He made an impassioned, at times heated, argument, telling the judge that her order forced them to violate their moral and professional responsibilities and disputing with her the notion that the dilemma could be resolved by a decision from the lawyers’ state bar associations.
“This is not about saving my license,” Poppe said. “This is about what you’re requiring me to do today.”
Osborn said that, until there was a ruling by an appellate court, the trial would go on.
Military law experts said that Poppe’s appeal would not have a major effect on the trial. But....
Hasan said he had grown a beard out of devotion to his Muslim faith, in violation of Army grooming rules. The case’s previous judge, Colonel Gregory Gross, called Hasan’s beard a disruption and ordered him to be forcibly shaved.
Based on an appeal by his Army defense team, however, a military appeals court vacated Gross’s order and removed him from the case, citing an appearance of bias.
Related: Army accepts bearded rabbi as chaplain
I guess they gotta accept a bearded Muslim or it really looks bad.
Hasan is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at the Army base on Nov. 5, 2009. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
The extent to which Hasan wants to die — and whether he believes being put to death would make him a martyr in the eyes of those who share his radical Islamic beliefs — has been unclear. By releasing his Army defense team and by choosing to represent himself, Hasan, who has no formal legal training, has increased his chances of the jury approving a death sentence.
In a July 2011 jailhouse statement to Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite broadcasting network — recorded by the FBI — Hasan began by quoting verses from Chapter 18 of the Koran....
Oh boy!
John P. Galligan, a civilian defense lawyer released by Hasan in 2011, disagreed with Poppe that Hasan’s goal was to be put to death.
Galligan said Hasan had done a good job representing himself. “They want to kill him,” Galligan said. “He knows that. That’s not a death wish as much as it is being a realist.”
He knows the deck is stacked against him.
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"Fort Hood trial quickly progresses after delays; Alleged gunman questions few witnesses’ claims" by Nomann Merchant and Paul J. Weber | Associated Press, August 10, 2013
FORT HOOD, Texas — Major Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist has barely contested anything in the first week of his long-awaited trial.
Hasan is not questioning witnesses as they describe being shot, seeing their comrades killed, and watching him open fire inside a crowded building at the Texas military base. He rarely objects. His opening statement lasted less than two minutes as he told jurors the evidence would show he was the shooter.
The result has been a swift procession of witnesses, fueling speculation that the trial — which the judge originally said could take several months — would wrap up far sooner.
Hasan, who is acting as his own attorney, is accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others during the attack on Nov. 5, 2009, that remains the worst mass shooting on a US military installation. The military attorneys assigned to help him believe he wants a death sentence, and two of them spent Friday drafting an appeal after the trial judge refused to let them take over or scale back their duties.
But that didn’t break Hasan’s impassive stare or silence as prosecutors continued to zip through witnesses, bringing the total this week to more than 40. The judge even offered Hasan a chance to speak up, after a soldier pounded the witness stand to simulate how rapidly Hasan fired his laser-sighted handgun.
‘‘An objection of that description, Mr. Hasan?’’ Colonel Tara Osborn asked Friday.
‘‘No objection,’’ Hasan said.
Hasan, 42, has indicated he plans to call just two witnesses. Since the trial began Tuesday, he has cross-examined two prosecution witnesses— his former supervisor and a member of his former mosque — and posed only brief questions.
He also didn’t question the roughly dozen witnesses who testified Friday about the chaotic, bloody scene the day of the shooting....
How Hasan would defend himself was the biggest mystery heading into the trial. The American-born Muslim wanted to argue the killings were in ‘‘defense of others,’’ namely members of the Taliban fighting Americans in Afghanistan. But the judge denied that strategy.
His mostly silent defense so far may prompt prosecutors to scale back their case, said Victor Hansen, a former military prosecutor who now teaches at the New England School of Law....
But Hasan was hardly a pushover for prosecutors ahead of the trial. He cited his religion in refusing to shave his beard, which violates military rules, and the fight delayed the trial last year and led to the former judge being removed. Other delays came when Hasan dismissed his former defense attorney and then his Army-appointed defense attorneys, who were forced to stay on as standby advisers.
What remains to be seen is whether Hasan is saving any forceful arguments for later in the trial or whether he is offering the path of least resistance.
His standby attorneys think it’s the latter. After the trial’s first day, they accused Hasan of trying to secure himself a death sentence.
The judge decided the fight was simply a difference in strategy, and she told the standby attorneys to remain in their advisory roles. And any appeal of that ruling would likely be dismissed, said Jeff Corn, a law professor at South Texas College of Law.
“The law is clear: If you are a standby attorney for a pro-se defendant and the defendant wants to make decisions tactically disastrous, that’s his prerogative,’’ Corn said.
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UPDATE: Ft. Hood trial moving at a quick pace
