KEY MOMENTS IN FORT HOOD CASE
2003
Nidal Hasan completes a degree in psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., and goes on to intern at Walter Reed Medical Center.
July 15, 2009
After receiving the rank of major, Hasan transfers to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood.
Nov. 5, 2009
Hasan opens fire in a crowded Fort Hood facility; 13 people are killed and more than 30 are wounded.
Nov. 12, 2009
Military officials charge Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder.
Dec. 2, 2009
The Army files additional charges — 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder — against Hasan.
June 1, 2010
Hasan makes his first courtroom appearance and wins a delay of trial.
July 6, 2010
Fort Hood leaders announce Hasan will be tried in a military court and will face the death penalty if convicted.
July 20, 2011
Hasan does not enter a plea during an arraignment hearing; he releases his defense attorney.
June 19, 2012
Hasan is barred from military court by a judge because he has grown a beard, an act that allegedly violates Army policy.
Dec. 3, 2012
A military judge is thrown off the case after an appeals court found his treatment of Hasan indicated a lack of impartiality.
June 4, 2013
A military judge allows Hasan to represent himself during his upcoming trial.
Aug. 6, 2013
The trial opens.
Aug. 23, 2013
Hasan is convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Aug. 28, 2013
Military jury sentences Hasan to death for 2009 rampage.
A military jury Wednesday sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, delivering the only punishment the Army believed fit for an attack on fellow unarmed soldiers. The sentence also was one that Hasan appeared to seek in a self-proclaimed effort to become a martyr.
The American-born Muslim, who has said he acted to protect Islamic insurgents abroad from American aggression, never denied killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at the Texas military base. Because he didn’t dispute the allegations — and put up nearly no defense — the trial has been primarily a pursuit of the death penalty.
The same jurors who convicted Hasan last week needed to agree unanimously on a death sentence. Otherwise, the 42-year-old faced a minimum sentence of life in prison.
Kathy Platoni, an Army reservist who still struggles with images of Capt. John Gaffaney bleeding to death at her feet, said she was surprised by the verdict.
“What Nidal Hasan wanted was to be a martyr and so many of the (victims’) families had spoken to the issue of not giving him what he wants because this is his own personal holy war,” said Platoni, who watched most of the trial from inside the courtroom.
“But on the other hand — this is from the bottom of my heart — he doesn’t deserve to live,” she said. “I don’t know how long it takes for a death sentence to be carried out, but the world will be a better place without him.”
Hasan had no visible reaction when the verdict was read, staring at the jury forewoman and then at the judge. Some victims’ relatives were in the courtroom but showed no reaction, which the judge had warned against ahead of the verdict.
Officials said Hasan will be taken back to a county jail and then transported on the first available military flight to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. The timing on the flight wasn’t immediately clear.
Hasan could become the first American soldier executed in more than half a century. But because the military justice system requires a lengthy appeals process, years or even decades could pass before he is put to death.
In his final plea for a rare military death sentence, the lead prosecutor assured jurors earlier Wednesday that Hasan would “never be a martyr” despite his attempt to tie the attack to religion.
“He is a criminal. He is a cold-blooded murderer,” Col. Mike Mulligan said. “This is not his gift to God. This is his debt to society. This is the cost of his murderous rampage.”
For nearly four years, the federal government has sought to execute Hasan, believing that any sentence short of a lethal injection would deny justice to victims and their families.
And for just as long, Hasan seemed content to go to the death chamber for his beliefs. He fired his own attorneys to represent himself and made almost no effort to have his life spared during his three-week trial. In fact, he told jurors during a brief opening statement that evidence would show he was the shooter and described himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.”
Hasan’s civil attorney, John Galligan, said Wednesday that he believes Hasan received an unfair trial. Galligan said he was disappointed in the sentence but was confident it would be reversed on appeal.
Death sentences are rare in the military, which has just five other prisoners on death row. The cases trigger a long appeals process, and 11 of the 16 death sentences handed down by military juries in the past 30 years have been overturned, according to an academic study and court records. No American soldier has been executed since 1961.
Eduardo Caraveo, whose father was killed in the rampage, said he cared more about Hasan being found guilty than he did about the sentencing. But he would have preferred that Hasan receive a life sentence.
“I didn’t want him getting any satisfaction, so him getting killed by the government just gives him what he wanted to me. He wanted to be a martyr,” said Caraveo, who lives in Tucson, Ariz. “My main thing is him being held accountable for his action. That’s really all I ever wanted.”
About the Author
