Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Maj. Nidal Hasan is Sentenced to Death by Military Court



From he Trenches

A military jury on Wednesday sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, handing the Army psychiatrist the ultimate punishment after a trial in which he seemed to be courting martyrdom by making almost no effort to defend himself.

The rare military death sentence came nearly four years after the attack that stunned even an Army hardened by more than a decade of constant war. Hasan walked into a medical building where soldiers were getting medical checkups, shouted “Allahu akbar” _ Arabic for “God is great!” _ and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. Thirteen people were killed.

 Hasan, who said he acted to protect Islamic insurgents abroad from American aggression, had no visible reaction when the sentence was announced, staring first at the jury forewoman and then at the judge. Some victims’ relatives were in the courtroom but none showed any reaction, which the judge had warned against. 

The American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent acted as his own attorney and never denied his actions at the huge Texas Army post. In opening statements, he told jurors that evidence would show he was the shooter and described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.” The same jurors who convicted Hasan last week deliberated the sentence for about two hours. They needed to agree unanimously on the death penalty. The only alternative was life in prison without parole.

21 comments:

  1. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. The main reasons for a court and a jury of your peers is to insure that the facts are heard impartially. Make sure the facts of the event are correct and most importantly, that you've got the right guy. I think that these requirements have been met.

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    1. So, pre-meditated murder by the government is all right?

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    2. Actually I prefer people like this to be killed by the intended victims in self defense. But in this case, it didn't work out. This case has fallen under the uniform code of military justice, though if it had been prosecuted in Texas it the sentence might have gone quicker since as Ron White has put it, Texas has installed an express lane on death row.
      He raised his hand and agreed to fall under the jurisdiction of the military.

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    3. I realize it's the law, but it's not right.

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  2. Can the firing squad use those bacon-coated bullets that an outfit in Idaho is making?

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    1. Islamophobia, plain and simple. But, I guess when you live in Arkansas that's all right.

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    2. No, poetic justice. This guy isn't a Muslim, at least not in a significant way. He's first, foremost, and thoroughly an asshole. And yes, I do despise that group of people.

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    3. Big surprise the hillbilly proves he is a bigot.

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    4. As I've asked before, what is Islamophobic about what Greg suggested? He didn't suggest forcing people to eat bacon to board a plane. He didn't suggest the use of bacon bullets in the military, etc. He just suggested it in one case--a case where the guy did something evil and Muslims have been loudly proclaiming that he's not a true Muslim because a true Muslim wouldn't do something like this.

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    5. Greg, bacon-coated bullets for assholes makes no sense. You meant bacon-coated bullets for the Muslim. That's Islamophobia. And as always, you won't admit to ANYTHING.

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    6. It's not because he's Muslim that he deserves that. It's because he perverted his religion and his oath and killed his fellow soldiers. I have great respect for the religion of Islam. This asshole, by contrast, doesn't get my respect.

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    7. Mike,

      Yes, it's a suggestion of bacon coating in the case of a Muslim, but Greg wasn't saying to do this to any Muslim convicted of a capital crime--he's talking about a guy who engaged in a religiously motivated terrorist attack.

      If the guy is going to use his religion to justify mass murder, why not tailor his punishment accordingly, so long as the suggestion isn't getting into "cruel and unusual" territory such as death by slow torture, dismemberment, etc.?

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    8. Because we are different and better than them. Of course your hillbilly thinking would make us the same as them. Is that the Bible speaking; an eye for an eye? So we should be a theocracy? Great thinking hillbilly!

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    9. T., why do you work so hard to justify Greg's nonsense?

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    10. I'm not working hard a justifying anything. I'm asking, honestly, what's Islamophobic about using a religious insult to someone who used his interpretation of the religion to justify mass murder?

      It's insulting to Hasan, and there's precedent that it might deter others with views like his. Other than that, Greg's not talking about doing this to all Muslims, and he's not implying or stating that Islam is bad in and of itself, so I'm not seeing the irrational fear of Islam or of Muslims.

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    11. You're playing hard to get, as usual. You're such a liar that you think nothing of pretending to not get the point if it means arguing with me and not giving in.

      Islamophobia, like homophobia, does not necessarily mean "irrational fear." Both words imply a hatred of the target group. With Muslims, anything to do with the pig, like using bacon-coated bullets to execute the man, is a horrible insult. It's an insult to their religion and culture. Greg knows this, and so do you.

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    12. So I hate Muslims, huh? Guess that will come as a surprise to my friends from college, half of whom are Muslims--most of them from overseas.

      You keep applying a framework to us that fits your view of us but doesn't match reality. I can't speak to Greg's thoughts any more than you can, but his words seem to mirror my own thoughts on the issue: It is an insult within the religion--based on the religion's teachings, not too the religion, just like waving your shoe at someone, hitting them with it, etc. is an insult in the culture at large.

      I see using pig products as a way to finally insult someone who would use the religion to justify mass murder and perhaps deter other would be terrorists the same way Pershing's similar tactic did in the Philippines. No more, no less.

      I don't know any Muslims that would do this to another Muslim, but that has more to do with some teachings from the Hadith and a worry about it rebounding on them, but I've heard them say plenty of things about dead terrorists that dance on the line drawn by those passages.

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  3. Capital punishment is retained in many progressive countries.

    It is good to see that the setting sun of the west is following our lead.

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    1. Following your lead? Just where do you think your going? We follow our own ideas, not anyone else's "lead".
      Your lost and going around in circles, chasing your tail. Have fun, dizzy.

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    2. Sorry, capital punishment is NOT retained in many progressive countries.

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    3. Mikeb, don't you realize that you're being kidded by one of the E.N./Jade sockpuppets?

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