Hasan found guilty of premeditated murder in 2009 Fort Hood rampage
By Charles Hadlock and Erin McClam, NBC News

FORT HOOD, Texas — Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who admitted to the 2009 shooting rampage at the military base here, was convicted Friday of 13 counts of premeditated murder — and could become the first American soldier to be put to death in half a century.

Hasan was also convicted, by a military jury, of 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the attack, the deadliest mass murder on a base in American military history.

Under military law, a conviction on at least two counts of premeditated murder makes Hasan eligible for the death penalty. The penalty phase of the court-martial is to begin Monday.

Hasan, 42, who acted as his own lawyer during the trial, said he had changed sides in what he called an American war against Islam. He presented no witnesses and did not make a closing argument to the jury.

Prosecutors said Hasan committed the attack because he did not want to be deployed to Afghanistan and that he believed he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible.

The military lined up 90 witnesses against him. One prosecutor, Army Col. Steve Henricks, told the jury that Hasan turned the Army base into his “personal kill zone” on Nov. 5, 2009.

A police officer ended the rampage by shooting Hasan, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He gave an opening statement in the trial and watched the rest of it from his wheelchair.

The prosecutor detailed for jurors how Hasan had asked for advice from Guns Galore, a firearms store near the base, and bought the highest-tech pistol available. He later trained at a range and used laser sights, Henricks said.

Besides the 13 dead, 31 people were hurt in the attack. Hasan shot at a 32nd and missed.

In the punishment phase, 16 witnesses are expected to testify, including one family member from each of the 13 people Hasan killed. He will also be allowed to speak, without restrictions.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, five men are on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The last military execution took place in April 1961, when an Army private was was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder.

Hasan joined the Army in 1988. He became a doctor and later a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. He was promoted to major in May 2009, and two months later was transferred to Fort Hood.

Prosecutors presented evidence that he bought a handgun, two laser sights, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and six high-capacity magazines. At the gun range, prosecutors said, he replaced bullseye targets with silhouettes.

Twenty days before the shooting, Hasan told a fellow doctor in a casual conversation that if the army was going to make him deploy, he was going to “make them pay,” the fellow doctor testified.

Prosecutors say Hasan chose to launch his attack at Fort Hood's medical readiness center because he knew it would be crowded with soldiers preparing to deploy. They said he chose Nov. 5 because his unit was to report to the center that day.

Erin McClam reported from New York. 

I have been worried that Obama would want to throw Hassan a party and give him a medal for this outrageous crime. Remember how he tried to play this down so people would forget it happened? 

He wants the death penalty, it will complete his jihad and he's get his 72 virgins.

IMO they should give him life without possibility of parole, put him in isolation for the rest of his miserable life and be extremely slow in giving him any medical care he needs. As a paraplegic he will be developing many issues as he ages, he will be developing bladder/kidney infections, pressure sores, maybe age related illness. He can be fed pork day in and day out, smear pork on everything he would be inclined to eat.....anything to just make him miserable.

But if he get the death penalty, he will become the jihad martyr that he wants to be....don't give that to him.

I'm probably alone in this one though. 

Put him out in the middle of a desert surrounded by nothing but hungry wild pigs. Do not give him any weapons to defend himself. 

He wants the death penalty, it will complete his jihad and he's get his 72 virgins.


I hope he gets the death penalty. He won't go to heaven and I doubt in this day, there are 72 virgins left. I hope NOW the Obama admin will call it what it is, terrorism. Calling it "workforce violence" is so ridiculous. No one is buying that. It makes obama look like he is appeasing the Muslims by doing this. He needs to man up and call it like it is. So sick of him sugar coating this tragic event. And why didn't the NSA figure this out before it happened? With all that eavesdropping on emails, voice mails, phones, computers, you would think someone would have picked this crap up. What are they listening to ? 

He wants the death penalty, it will complete his jihad and he's get his 72 virgins.


yeah I heard he's getting 72 MALE virgins! 

yeah I heard he's getting 72 MALE virgins!

Yup- 36 'Bubbas' and 36 'Brunos'!