Posted on 04/28/2005 10:28:17 AM PDT by SmithL
Fort Bragg -- An Army sergeant convicted of murdering two officers in a grenade attack on his comrades in Kuwait quietly said he was sorry Thursday before a military prosecutor urged the jury to sentence the soldier to death because he was an idealogically driven killer.
"I apologize for my actions. ... When I did that, I felt my life was in jeopardy, and I had other problems," Sgt. Hasan Akbar told the 15-person military jury.
Akbar spoke for less than a minute, making an unsworn statement that could not be cross-examined. He testified in such a low voice that even prosecutors sitting nearby had trouble hearing, with one lawyer even cupping his ear.
The defense rested its case after Akbar addressed the same jury that last week convicted him of two counts of premeditated murder and three counts of attempted premeditated murder. The 34-year-old Akbar faces three possible sentences — death, life with parole or life without parole.
Prosecutors have said Akbar launched the attack on members of the 101st Airborne Division in March 2003 at Camp Pennsylvania because he was concerned about U.S. troops killing fellow Muslims in the Iraq war.
The 101st was waiting to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq that had begun two days earlier.
In closing arguments of the sentencing phase, chief prosecutor Lt. Col. Michael Mulligan urged jurors to sentence Akbar to death and reject claims that the soldier's background caused his actions.
Mulligan described Akbar as a nearly lifelong religious ideologue. "He is a hate-filled, ideologically driven murderer," the prosecutor said, adding that Akbar wrote in his diary in 1997, "My life will not be complete unless America is destroyed."
Defense attorney Maj. David Coombs told jurors that Akbar should get a life sentence without parole so that he can get treatment
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I lot of people become sorry once convicted and their fate is about to be sealed.
Firing squad. Tell it to God.
Well, he did say he was sorry.
Like being a Muslim.
why is this guy still alive?
Firing squad too military he doesnt merit it
Hang him...Hang him high
IMO
Ah, he's sorry...tell that to the widows and the victims children...maybe they'll forgive you(I bet not) but I sure won't.....death!
Does that mean since his life is really in jeopardy now he's justified in grenading the Courts Martial?
The defense attorney suggests life imprisonment without parole, so this killer can get treatment? Of what use is treatment if the killer can't ever return to society?
As for the apology, this guy wasted a bunch of air making it.
I was always taught to apologize when I threw grenades at people. It does seem like common courtesy.
They're hangin' Danny Deaver in the mornin'.
Because this is America ...
We give the worthless SOB a fair trial first.
Then we hang him.
That could describe a lot of followers of Mad Mo.
SAVE THE BULLETS...HANG HIS STINKING ASS!
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