Fort Hood Shooter Trial [Offical Thread]

[apples]

In rare move, Fort Hood shooter cross-examines witness

Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan, on trial for a 2009 attack that left 13 dead and 300 wounded, Monday tried a self-defense tactic he rarely has used before: questioning a witness.

Hasan, who is representing himself at the military tribunal, has questioned only three of more than 80 witnesses called thus far.

On Monday he cross-examined Staff Sgt. Juan Alvarado, who said he saw  a gunfight between Hasan and Kimberly Munley, a Fort Hood police officer who responded to the shootings at the Texas military base.

 

Alvarado said Hasan tried to shoot Munley after she'd been shot and disarmed.

 

“Are you saying after it was clear that she was disarmed that I continued to fire at her?” Hasan asked.

“Yes,” Alvarado replied.

“No questions. No further questions,” Hasan said.

Earlier Monday, the judge overseeing the trial blocked prosecutors from using several witnesses and most evidence they'd sought to explain the motive behind the  attack.

Prosecutors had asked the military judge, Col. Tara Osborn, to approve evidence and several witnesses to explain the mindset of Hasan.

Such evidence included references to Hasan Akbar, a Muslim soldier sentenced to death for attacking fellow soldiers in Kuwait during the 2003 Iraq invasion. Prosecutors wanted to suggest a copycat motive.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/19/fort-hood-prosecutors-press-judge-to-allow-proof-hasan-motives-as-trial-enters/?test=latestnews#ixzz2cXXMeHig

[apples]

Fort Hood Judge Bans Evidence of Shooter's 'Jihadi' Motives

Lawyers representing the family members of those killed and injured in the Ft. Hood shooting rampage were outraged today when an Army judge limited prosecutors from introducing evidence, including emails to a known Al Qaeda operative, that would establish accused shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan's "jihadi" motives.

The judge's rulings could inhibit the ability of the victims' families to claim in a civil suit that the shootings were an act of terror. Federal lawyers involved in the civil suit claim that the people shot during Hasan's murderous rage were victims of workplace violence, a designation that could sharply limit the damages in a civil suit.

"This is first degree mass murder case and motive is absolutely relevant to prove premeditation," said Neal Sher, a lawyer representing many of the victims and their family members in a separate civil suit against the government.

Prosecutors have sought to portray Hasan as a Muslim extremist, motivated by Islamist ideology and in touch with known al Qaeda member Anwar Alwaki.

"He didn't want to deploy and he came to believe he had a jihad duty to murder soldiers," lead prosecutor Col. Steve Henricks said in his opening statements. He wanted to "kill as many soldiers as he could."

The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, ruled today that prosecutors could not mention Hasan's correspondence with Alwaki, an American born al Qaeda recruiter and organizer. Osborn also barred prosecutors from mentioning Hassan's interest in seeking conscientious objector status and drawing parallels to a 2003 incident in which another Muslim American soldier attacked U.S. troops in Kuwait, according to the Associated Press.

The judge found much of that evidence was too old, but permitted prosecutors to introduce evidence about Hasan's internet usage and search history from the time of the attack.

http://news.yahoo.com/fort-hood-judge-bans-evidence-shooters-jihadi-motives-195407699--abc-news-topstories.html

[apples]

Hospital employee recounts Hasan threat as prosecution comes to a close

FORT HOOD, Texas — The government rested its case against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan on Tuesday, and the judge recessed until Wednesday morning – when Hasan has a chance to testify in his own defense.

Hasan, charged in the shooting deaths of 13 people and wounding of 32 others, is representing himself in the court-martial. It’s not clear if he will call any witnesses or interview himself; on Tuesday morning he told the judge that he did not plan to call Dr. Lewis Rambo, an expert on religious conversion whom Hasan had included on a witness list he submitted Friday.

The last prosecution witness Tuesday told the panel of military officers acting as a jury in the case that Hasan was frustrated about having to deploy to Afghanistan, and told a medical resident, “They will pay.”

Hasan had the conversation with Dr. Tonya Kozminski the weekend of Oct. 17, 2009, she said. A few days later, he sent an email to his supervisors expressing concern about the action of a soldier he was evaluating as a military psychiatrist, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Hasan sent a second, similar email two days before the shooting that left 13 people dead and 32 more injured at a predeployment clinic.

Hasan has admitted he was the shooter, and said he did it to protect Taliban leaders from soldiers who were about to deploy to Afghanistan. Hasan was also scheduled to deploy with some of the soldiers who were at the clinic that day.

In the emails released to the Times by Hasan’s civilian lawyer, Hasan expressed concern about a soldier who reported to him that American troops had poured 50 gallons of fuel into the Iraqi water supply as revenge; a case in which a soldier told him about a mercy killing of a severely injured insurgent by medics; and a soldier who spoke of killing an Iraqi woman because he was following orders to shoot anything that approached a specific site.

The Army never fully investigated his concerns. He has admitted that he opened fire in the clinic on Nov. 5, 2009, as part of a jihad to protect Taliban leaders from troops headed to Afghanistan.

“I think I need a lot of reassurance for the first few times I come across these,” Hasan wrote on Nov. 2, 2009, referencing the three cases that worried him. Below his e-mail signature, he included a quote from the Quran: “All praises and thanks go to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of all the worlds.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/hospital-employee-recounts-hasan-threat-as-prosecution-comes-to-a-close-1.236304

[apples]

Prosecutor: No question Hasan was Fort Hood gunman

Fort Hood, Texas — Army Maj. Nidal Hasan is sending only a single piece of evidence to the jury room when deliberations start about whether he is guilty of the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood: an evaluation from his boss that called him a good soldier.

Then there’s the trove military prosecutors are handing over.

Pill bottles that rattle with bullets removed from soldiers. Photos of Hasan prowling the outside of a Fort Hood medical building with a gun during the shooting. Jurors can even handle that gun, an FN 5.7 semi-automatic pistol, which Hasan volunteered belonged to him during the 12-day trial.

In all, the U.S government produced more than 700 pieces of evidence against Hasan, who hasn’t put up a fight against charges that he killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others in the deadliest mass shooting ever on a U.S. military base.

Jury deliberations were expected to start following closing arguments on Thursday. Hasan rested his case Wednesday without calling a single witnesses or testifying in his own defense, so it wasn’t clear Thursday morning if he planned to say anything.

But prosecutors used their closing argument to ask jurors, all high-ranking military officers, to unanimously convict Hasan of premeditated murder — which would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

The prosecutor, Col. Steve Henricks, said there was no doubt Hasan planned and carried out the attack. He noted that Hasan asked for the highest-tech weapon available when he went to a gun store a few months before the attack and then began practicing. Hasan also used laser sights, which Henricks said “established intent to kill.”

Although Hasan has remained mostly silent during his trial, he perked up Wednesday when talking about what he said that evidence doesn’t show: that the attack he admits to carrying out was somehow impulsive.

“I would like to agree with the prosecution that it wasn’t done under the heat of sudden passion,” Hasan told the judge after jurors had left for the day.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130822/NATION/308220045#ixzz2cikFuF8e

[apples]

Jury convicts Nidal Hasan on all charges in Fort Hood shooting

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- [Breaking news alert, 1:37 p.m.]

A military jury has convicted Army Maj. Nidal Hasan of 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in a November 5, 2009, shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, making it possible for the death penalty to be considered as a possible punishment.

[Previous story, 1:27 p.m.]

Jury in Nidal Hasan court-martial resumes deliberations
Hasan trial: A suicide mission?
Fort Hood shooter rests his case
Nidal Hasan: 'I am the shooter'
Photos: Worst mass shootings in U.S. Photos: Worst mass shootings in U.S.

A military jury considering the fate of Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with massacring soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, resumed deliberations Friday morning in the death penalty case.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in the November 5, 2009, shooting rampage at a deployment processing center where prosecutors say he targeted soldiers he was set to deploy with to Afghanistan.

A judge handed the case to the jury, a panel of 13 senior officers, on Thursday afternoon after 12 days of testimony in a court-martial where Hasan was acting as his own attorney.

After nearly three hours of deliberations, the panel asked to rehear the testimony of the police officer who shot Hasan, ending the rampage that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded.

Jurors also asked to see a map marked by the police officer, Mark Todd, indicating where he shot Hasan.

The questions appeared to indicate that the jury was evaluating the charge -- premeditated attempted murder -- against Hasan for firing at Todd, who was not wounded in the attack.

Later, the judge reconvened the court-martial so that the jury could ask two questions about paperwork, possibly indicating it is close to a verdict. The jury went back to its deliberations after it received the answers.

The jury began deliberations after Hasan declined to make a statement during closing arguments.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/justice/nidal-hasan-court-martial-friday/index.html

[GeronL]

good!

Now make him dead.

 

[apples]

good!

Now make him dead.

 

I would usually agree  BUT he is in a wheelchair and you know life cannot be pleasant for him. Have you seen the photos of him recently and at the time of the murders?  His body is frail he is not looking good.

[apples]

Convicted Fort Hood gunman begins sentencing phase

FORT HOOD, Texas –  The Fort Hood shooter, an Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in the November 2009 attack, faces the death penalty as the sentencing phase of his trial begins Monday.

Maj. Nidal Hasan showed no reaction after being found guilty last week by a military jury, which will now decide whether the Virginia-born Muslim who said he opened fire on unarmed soldiers at the Texas Army post to protect insurgents abroad should be executed.

Twelve of the dead were soldiers, including a pregnant private who pleaded for the unborn child's life. More than 30 others were wounded. Investigators collected more than 200 bullet casings at the site of the attack.

At the minimum, the 42-year-old Hasan will spend the rest of his life in prison.

"This is where members (of the jury) decide whether you will live or whether you will die," Col. Tara Osborn, the trial judge, told Hasan on Friday following his conviction.

She then again implored Hasan, who represented himself during the 14-day trial, to consider letting his standby attorneys take over for the sentencing phase. He declined.

Jurors deliberated for about seven hours before finding Hasan guilty on all counts. He gave them virtually no alternative, as he didn't present a defense or make a closing argument, and he only questioned three of the nearly 90 witnesses called by prosecutors.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/26/sentencing-phase-fort-hood-trial-begins-monday/?test=latestnews

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Fort Hood shooter ignores judge's plea as death sentence looms

FORT HOOD, Texas –  The military judge presiding over the court martial of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan warned the Army major that his life hangs in the balance as his trial entered the sentencing phase, but the self-professed "soldier of Allah" declined to let his court-appointed attorneys help him avoid a death sentence.

"You understand that you are staking your life on the decisions that you make," Col. Tara Osborn, the trial judge, told Hasan on Friday following his conviction. "Still wish to proceed pro se?"

"I do," Hasan replied.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in the November 2009 attack, faces the death penalty as the sentencing phase of his trial begins Monday. But after admitting in opening arguments he was the killer, then barely bothering to question witnesses during the trial, it has become apparent that the Virginia-born Hasan could be seeking martyrdom.

Hasan showed no reaction after being found guilty last week by a military jury of opening fire on unarmed soldiers at the Texas Army post to protect insurgents abroad should be executed. Twelve of the dead were soldiers, including a pregnant private who pleaded for the unborn child's life. More than 30 others were wounded. Investigators collected more than 200 bullet casings at the site of the attack.

At the minimum, the 42-year-old Hasan, who was left paralyzed after being shot during his rampage, will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Osborn implored Hasan, who represented himself during the 14-day trial, to consider letting his standby attorneys take over for the sentencing phase. He declined.

Jurors deliberated for about seven hours before finding Hasan guilty on all counts. He gave them virtually no alternative, as he didn't present a defense or make a closing argument, and he only questioned three of the nearly 90 witnesses called by prosecutors.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/26/sentencing-phase-fort-hood-trial-begins-monday/?test=latestnews

[jafo2010]

Every day this muslim pig lives is a travesty.  He should have received swift justice.

[GeronL]

Getting this admitted terrorist to trial took longer than WW2!

He should have swung by now

[apples]

Ft. Hood Shooter Gave Away Salary, No Money Left for Victims

Convicted Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan gave the $300,000 collected in salary since 2009 to charity, leaving none for his victims or their families.

According to CBS News, an "Army spokesman [says] the military can't get the money back because Hasan, like any other service member charged with a crime," was simply receiving his salary as required until he was convicted.

Hasan's civil attorney John Gilligan added: "There's really no money in any bank that I'm aware of. There's really no property holdings."

In other words, the victims of Hasan's attack will not be getting any funds from their attacker.

While some say Hasan's salary only would have been a fraction of what was needed to begin with, his surviving victims stress the principle at stake. Retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford was shot seven times in the Ft. Hood attack, and he gave the following testimo

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/09/17/Ft-Hood-Shooter-Gave-Away-Salary-No-Money-Left-For-Victims