The nation’s highest military court has affirmed the conviction and death sentence for a University of California, Davis, graduate who admitted killing two fellow U.S. soldiers at the start of the Iraq War. In a closely split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces rejected claims by Los Angeles native Hasan K. Akbar that his original defense team was ineffective. Akbar argued at trial that he was mentally ill when he killed two and wounded 14 in the March 2003 attack in Kuwait.