Posted on 11/15/2010 11:34:57 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
FORT HOOD — After prosecutors called 56 witnesses over nine days in an evidentiary hearing that began last month and resumed Monday after a three-week break, defense attorneys for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan rested after four minutes.
Hasan, a psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others in a Nov. 5, 2009 shooting spree at a post deployment center, was asked by an Army judge if he had anything to say.
“No,” replied Hasan, who wore combat fatigues and a green watch cap.
The proceeding for Hasan, charged with 13 specifications of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, wrapped up after the Article 32 investigating officer, Col. James Pohl, asked prosecutors and the defense whether they wished to give closing statements.
Both declined, and so he closed the hearing. The next step may be up to Pohl, who will file a recommendation on whether higher-level commanders should order a trial — one that could lead to the death penalty.
Fort Hood's public affairs office last week said a decision on a trial is expected at the beginning of next year, but one military legal lawyer said Monday that isn't clear.
“I don't think anyone knows,” said Lt. Col. Chris Allen. “We can speculate endlessly, but I don't think anyone knows that.”
Under military law, Galligan was not required to put on a case in the Article 32, which is similar to a civilian grand jury.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
I guess it took four minutes to read the boilerplate.
Waiting for the pro-terrorist media to call THIS action by a US soldier a “warcrime”.
The press makes me ill.
predictable in hindsight ... why telegraph your defense in the hearing when a court martial is inevitable?
That or fry the goat raping sonofab!tch in an electric chair.
(I know, I know, THAT won’t happen).
That would be, "No, Sir".
speaks on Hasan-the terrorist on CBN
I don't watch CBN at all but occasionally there's a nugget worth sharing. besides I've met the general but never had a converstaion with him...nope generals were like gods, never fraternized. Now I'd like to talk with him>/p>
Since he killed both military personnel and civilians, the best possible outcome is a minimal military sentence, then for him to be turned over to the State of Texas for prosecution.
The reason is that military commonly sentences criminals to death, but almost never carries out that punishment, which must even be affirmed by the president. The last execution was in 1961. W. Bush wanted to start executing military condemned, but the Pentagon refused.
However, Texas is not similarly handicapped.
In addition, if Hasan is sentenced to the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, his life there will be heavenly compared to life in one of the Texas maximum security prisons, which are best described as “harsh”.
The reason I say all of this is that this particular outcome is well known to the US Army. When a soldier commits one or more especially heinous crimes at one of the bases in Texas, involving both military and civilian offenses, special care is taken to insure that any military punishment not get in the way of Texas exacting its fair share of justice as well.
They are just better at it.
You know how media is spinning it, right?
He was stressed out by military life and snapped.
Following a brief report on the anniversary of the Fort Hood massacre, CBS’s Couric made a smooth segue into a report about “Army suicides,” (another symptom of the horror of military life, right?)
Talk about feeling sick....
They can’t call it “post traumatic stress disorder”, so they tried to invent PRE-deployment stress disorder.
Government has also tried to label this just another case of “workplace violence”. Brought to you by the same fifth columnists in our government who’d caught him making jihadist death threats (cut off their heads) against non-muslisms and even communicating with Al Qaeda abroad and let him continue to carry out his duties without prosecution.
Try this warcriminal and call him out as such. He’s also a traitor by communicating with the foreign enemy in a time of war and staging his own attack on men-women-children.
I can’t imagine what the defense could offer. There is no question that he was the shooter who murdered 13 innocent people. I don’t think they could find any inconsistency in the testimony of 32 eyewitnesses. In asking for the Presidential intelligence report and records from Walter Reed Hospital, I suppose the defense could argue that the Army knew of Hassan’s problems and that he was a threat, but didn’t try to stop him. That hardly outweighs the fact that he pulled the trigger and committed 13 murders. I hope military justice moves faster than in the civilian courts and this guy doesn’t get off on a technicality or have 20 years of appeals before being executed.
My thought too.
From what I understand, the military could just discharge him and hand him over to the civil authorities. Wouldn't need to court martial him at all.
They wouldn’t do that because they want insurance that even if something terribly wrong happens in a civilian trial, he will not get over.
I knew of one soldier in the military at Fort Hood who was a one man crime wave, seriously, he needed hanging ten times over. But they only gave him four years at Leavenworth, because they knew that Texas wanted him badly. And that he wouldn’t last long at all in a Texas max.
What're they going to do- make him stand fire watch? His life's over, and he knows it.
That is, unless Obama pardons him or something.
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