USA — Court Martial May Consider Death Penalty for Hasan

WASHINGTON — An Army offi­cial has rec­om­mend­ed that Maj. Nidal M. Hasan be tried before a gen­er­al court mar­tial autho­rized to con­sid­er cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, Fort Hood, Texas, offi­cials said today.
Hasan is charged with 13 counts of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der and 32 counts of attempt­ed pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der in the Nov. 5, 2009 attack on troops ready­ing to deploy to Afghanistan.

The com­man­der of the post’s 21st Air Cav­al­ry Brigade, Col. Mor­gan Lamb, has rec­om­mend­ed the charges pend­ing against Hasan be sent to a gen­er­al court mar­tial autho­rized to con­sid­er cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The colonel’s rec­om­men­da­tion is non-bind­ing. The con­ven­ing author­i­ty – in this case, 3rd Corps com­man­der Army Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone – will make the final deci­sion in the Hasan case. 

Offi­cials at the post released the infor­ma­tion after Hasan’s defense coun­sel pub­licly released the recommendation. 

Army lawyers are review­ing the charges and the Arti­cle 32 inves­ti­ga­tion in order to pro­vide legal advice on the case to Cone. 

Fort Hood offi­cials said in a news release that under the Uni­form Code of Mil­i­tary Jus­tice, a gen­er­al court-mar­tial con­ven­ing author­i­ty has sev­er­al options upon receipt of charges from a sub­or­di­nate com­man­der, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to dis­miss­ing the charges, refer­ring them to court mar­tial or send­ing them to a dif­fer­ent con­ven­ing author­i­ty for pos­si­ble action. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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