The Week posts, "Nidal Hasan, and the 5 other men on the military's death row," by Frances Weaver.
A military jury took just two hours on Wednesday to unanimously sentence Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for carrying out the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base in the nation's history. Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others during his 2009 rampage at Fort Hood, had insisted on representing himself — and hadn't exactly put up much of a fight, declaring on the first day of the trial that "the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter."
If the Virginia-born Muslim was looking for martyrdom — as many, including his former defense team, claim — then he apparently got his wish. But he'll have a wait on his hands: As Bill Mears notes at CNN, "If swift justice is the goal, history may not be on Hasan's or the government's side." The military justice system requires a lengthy appeals process, whether Hasan likes it or not. Even if Hasan ignores many of the appeal options available to him, there are still mandatory processes in place running all the way up to the Supreme Court, which gets the final say on the matter.
Largely because of the time-consuming nature of this complex system, the last military execution was all the way back in 1961, when Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl.
The article provides a brief description of the five men on the U.S. military's death row at Fort Leavenworth.
Earlier coverage of the Hasan military death penalty trial begins at the link. Related posts are in the military category index.
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