Major Nidal Hasan
As the military murder trial of Army Major Nidal Hasan moves toward its conclusion, the defendant’s defense attorneys want out. Actually, they are standby counsel, since Hasan has decided to act as his own lawyer, and they don’t think he is doing a very good job. In fact, they believe that Hassan’s admission in court that he is the shooter who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others almost three years before as an act of jihad is essentially inviting the death penalty and therefore tantamount to suicide.
To be party to such a strategy would be a violation of professional ethics, declared Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, the head of Hasan’s legal team.
The judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, refused to release them from the trial. She made the right decision.
