{"id":34693,"date":"2013-03-22T10:35:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T14:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=34693"},"modified":"2013-03-22T10:38:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T14:38:05","slug":"a-hassan-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=34693","title":{"rendered":"A Hassan Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it looks like Hassan ploy to avoid the needle by pleading is a NO-GO.\u00a0 (Yeah, I know \u2013 he\u2019s still technically a member of the military.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care.\u00a0 I refuse to give that treacherous asshole the honor of using a military title with his name.)\u00a0 The judge didn\u2019t take the bait.<\/p>\n

Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter, recently offered to plead guilty to noncapital murder. \u00a0\u00a0However, the military judge in the case, COL Tara Osborn, refused to accept his plea<\/a>.\u00a0 He’ll be tried for capital murder, with the death penalty in play.<\/p>\n

IMO, COL Olson made the correct decision.\u00a0 The UCMJ prohibits pleading guilty to a capital crime.\u00a0 While theoretically his trial on capital murder charges could have proceeded after a guilty plea to noncapital murder, that might possibly also have given Nidal an avenue for appeal.\u00a0 In that scenario Hassan would have pleaded guilty to a lesser included crime, then later been convicted for the original crime for which he was charged.\u00a0 You never know beforehand how the Court of Military Appeals or the SCOTUS might view such a situation.<\/p>\n

The possibility for the plea influencing one or more panel members was also likely a consideration. Death penalty sentences under the UCMJ must be unanimous.\u00a0 The defense was obviously hoping that a guilty plea to lesser charges, if accepted, would be considered as \u201cacceptance of responsibility\u201d (yeah, right) during sentencing deliberations.<\/p>\n

COL Osborn is also weighing whether to allow the testimony of an terrorism expert.\u00a0 Defense attorneys predictably oppose this, claiming it would be \u201cprejudicial\u201d.<\/p>\n

The wheels of justice indeed turn slowly.\u00a0 But as I\u2019m guessing Hassan is going to find out, they also grind exceedingly fine.<\/p>\n

Keep thinking about those \u201c72 virgins\u201d, Nidal.\u00a0 Hopefully you\u2019ll be seeing them soon.\u00a0 And to help you better appreciate what’s in store for you, here\u2019s your own personalized preview (WARNING:\u00a0 image may be disturbing to full stomachs):<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it looks like Hassan ploy to avoid the needle by pleading is a NO-GO.\u00a0 (Yeah, … A Hassan Update<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,84,155,7,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-military-issues","category-shitbags","category-terror-war","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}