Q: On the news the other day I thought I heard that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the accused shooter in the Fort Hood slayings, is still receiving his salary. What military (or other) law allows this to happen? If he is convicted, will he be required to return the appropriate amount of salary he has received?
—Chris Rice, Rex
A: The Uniform Code of Military Justice doesn't allow the U.S. military to stop paying active service personnel accused of a crime until they are convicted. Hasan has received more than $278,000 in salary since the Fort Hood shooting on Nov. 5, 2009. He currently is on trial for 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the worst shooting on a U.S. military base. The Army could attempt to force Hasan, an American-born Muslim and psychiatrist, to pay for the medical treatment he's received since being shot and paralyzed from the waist down during the shooting, but military officials have not said if they plan to do that, NBC 5 in Fort Worth reported. A group of U.S. Congressmen – including Joe Barton, R-Texas, Tim Griffin, R-Ark., Tom Rooney, R-Fla., and Frank Wolf, R-Va. – have proposed The Stop Pay for Violent Offenders Act, which would "suspend military pay for service men and women charged with certain crimes," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. "Our bill is simple – if you're awaiting trial for a serious crime, you can't collect a salary from the American taxpayer," Rooney, a former prosecutor at Fort Hood, told the paper.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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