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death penalty cases
Former US Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan has been sentenced to die by lethal injection for killing 13 soldiers at Texas Army base Fort Hood, a military jury has decided.
Nidal Hasan, 42, was convicted last week of the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, in which 32 others were also injured.
The defendant had tried to admit his guilt but military law bans guilty pleas in death penalty cases.
The Virginia-born Muslim said he opened fire to protect Taliban insurgents from troops about to deploy to Afghanistan.
Nidal Hasan’s court-appointed lawyers have previously told the judge they suspect he is seeking execution in a bid for martyrdom.
The jury handed down its sentence after two hours of deliberations on Wednesday.
But it could be years, possibly decades, before Nidal Hasan is executed because of the long appeals process in the military justice system.
Major Nidal Hasan has been sentenced to die by lethal injection for killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood
His execution must eventually be authorized by the president.
On Wednesday before the sentence was handed down, prosecutor Colonel Mike Mulligan urged jurors to opt for a rare military death penalty.
“He will not now and he will never be a martyr,” Col. Mike Mulligan said of Nidal Hasan.
“He is a criminal. He is a cold-blooded murderer.”
“This is not his gift to God. This is his debt to society. This is the cost of his murderous rampage.”
“He will never be a martyr because he has nothing to give,” Col. Mike Mulligan added.
“He will not be giving his life, we will be taking it.”
Nidal Hasan, who represented himself, declined to speak on his own behalf, saying only: “I have no closing statement.”
The 13-member jury had to come to a unanimous agreement in order to sentence Nidal Hasan to death, otherwise he would have faced life in prison.
The US military has not executed a service member since 1961. There are five inmates on the US military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, all at various stages of the appeals process.
Nidal Hasan opened fire at a medical facility on the Fort Hood base where soldiers were being evaluated before deploying overseas.
The trial heard he had prepared carefully for the attack, during which he fired 146 bullets.
The shooting spree ended when he was shot by a civilian police officer.
Nidal Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down from the wound and now uses a wheelchair.
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Nidal Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people at Texas Army base Fort Hood, has declined to make a statement as jurors begin considering his sentence.
Major Nidal Hasan, 42, faces the death penalty after being found guilty of the attack at Fort Hood Army base in 2009.
He is defending himself but has stayed largely silent throughout his trial.
During the sentencing phase on Tuesday, Nidal Hasan rested his case without offering any witnesses or providing evidence in favor of a life sentence.
The former military psychiatrist had previously tried to admit multiple murder charges, but military rules ban guilty pleas in death penalty cases.
Nidal Hasan was convicted of 13 counts of pre-meditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder on Friday.
He said he opened fire on unarmed US soldiers, killing 13 and wounding many more, to protect Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
The military jury, which reached a unanimous verdict in seven hours, began the penalty phase of the trial on Monday.
Nidal Hasan has declined to make a statement as jurors begin considering his sentence
For the 13-member panel to recommend that the judge sentence Nidal Hasan to death, it must come to a unanimous agreement. If the panel members do not agree, he will face a life sentence in prison.
The US military has not executed a service member since 1961. There are five inmates on the US military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, all at various stages of the appeals process.
Among the last barriers to military execution is authorization from the president.
Nidal Hasan, a Virginia-born Muslim, rested his case shortly after family members of those killed, along with soldiers wounded in the rampage, gave emotional testimonies about their lives since the attack on 5 November 2009.
His court-appointed legal advisers tried to step in on his behalf.
But military judge Colonel Tara Osborn denied their request, saying Major Nidal Hasan had the constitutional right to represent himself.
“It is my free and voluntary decision,” he told her.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday, but it is unclear whether jurors will hear from Nidal Hasan again, the Associated Press reports.
His court-appointed lawyers previously told the judge they believed he sought execution in a bid for martyrdom.
Nidal Hasan opened fire at a medical facility on the Fort Hood base where soldiers were being evaluated before deploying overseas.
Prosecutors said he had prepared carefully for the attack for weeks and fired a total of 146 bullets.
The shooting spree ended when Nidal Hasan was shot by a civilian police officer. He was paralyzed from the waist down from the wound and now uses a wheelchair.
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According to legal sources, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyer have started very early talks about a possible deal in which the Boston Marathon bomber would cooperate in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team got a major boost on Monday with the addition of prominent anti-death penalty lawyer Judy Clarke, who has managed to get life sentences for several high-profile clients.
A judge approved the appointment of death penalty expert Judy Clarke to defend 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction during the April 15 marathon.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team got a major boost with the addition of prominent anti-death penalty lawyer Judy Clarke, who has managed to get life sentences for several high-profile clients
Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
But judge Marianne Bowler denied, at least for now, a request from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s public defender, Miriam Conrad, to appoint a second death penalty lawyer – David Bruck, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers could renew their motion to appoint another death penalty expert if he is indicted, the judge said.
The news that he could escape the death penalty for divulging information was reported on NBC News.
Judy Clarke’s clients have included the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski; Susan Smith, a woman who famously drowned her two children; Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph; and most recently Jared Loughner, who shot former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head.
All received life sentences instead of the death penalty.
Judy Clarke has rarely spoken publicly about her work, however, at a speech Friday at a legal conference in Los Angeles, she talked about how she had been “sucked into the black hole, the vortex” of death penalty cases 18 years ago when she represented Susan Smith.
“I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us,” Judy Clarke said.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that I oppose the death penalty.”
David Bruck has directed Washington and Lee’s death penalty defense clinic, the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, since 2004.
