FORT HOOD, Texas – A case that already had the makings of a bizarre Court TV episode – a wheelchair-bound defendant representing himself, bullet-riddled victims, First Amendment fights over a beard – just got stranger.
The latest twist in the court-martial saga of Maj. Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in a 2009 shooting spree, is a rift that emerged Wednesday between the defendant and his court-appointed defense counsel.
The defense team, led by Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, says Hasan is purposely trying to win the death penalty for himself. His defense team wants to be excused from helping him reach that goal.
Hasan disagrees, objecting to his own lawyers in court. “That’s a twist of the facts,” he said Wednesday.
Hasan, 42, faces 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of premeditated attempted murder. He could face the death penalty if convicted – and could be the first person the military puts to death in five decades.
Everything about the case so far – from having a commissioned officer accused of murder to the scale of killing and the volume of evidence against the accused – makes it a historically unique case, said Geoffrey Corn, a former Army judge advocate who teaches military and national security law at South Texas College of Law in Houston.
“The case is unprecedented on so many levels,” Corn said. “It’s totally unique in the annals of criminal military justice.”
From its start, the case has been besieged by delays, starting when Hasan, an American-born Muslim, refused to shave his beard in accordance with military code. Col. Gregory Gross, the judge at the time, ordered Hasan’s beard forcibly shaved. A court of appeals later removed Gross and replaced him with Col. Tara Osborn.
Hasan created further ripples by dismissing his defense team and mounting a “defense of others” strategy, saying he planned to argue that he shot the Fort Hood soldiers to prevent further Taliban deaths in Afghanistan. Osborn has barred him from using that defense.
Each morning, a bailiff wheels Hasan, a paraplegic since a base police officer shot him to end the shooting spree, into the courtroom. Doctors have said Hasan cannot sit upright for more than 12 hours a day without his concentration being affected, and he has trouble writing more than a few pages at a time.
Hasan needs to take regular breaks to keep his muscles from spasming and is allowed to wear his combat fatigues to hide a colostomy bag. He wears a green skullcap during breaks – his ability to regulate body temperature is affected by the paralysis – but removes it each time Osborn enters the courtroom.
On Tuesday, Hasan’s one-minute opening statement included an unexpected admission of guilt and a sworn allegiance to the mujahideen , or holy warriors. Later, while cross-examining retired Lt. Col. Ben Phillips, a former supervisor at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Hasan tried to ask his former boss about war crimes in Iraq and victims of war – but Osborn stopped him short after an objection from the prosecution.
After hearing Hasan’s first day of self-representation, his standby counsel asked to be removed from the case. “We don’t want to be asked to assist in the goal of helping him achieve the death penalty,” said Poppe, the lead defense attorney.
Osborn adjourned court for the day to study the latest wrinkle.
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