The military trial of US army officer Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people at an army post in Texas state, is set to begin on Tuesday.
Hasan does not deny that he carried out the November 2009 rampage at Fort Hood, one of the worst mass shootings in US history.
He is charged with 13 specifications of premeditated murder and 32 specifications of attempted premeditated murder.
Thirteen officers from around the country who hold Hasan’s rank or higher will serve on the jury for a trial that will likely last one month and probably longer.
The former US army psychiatrist has twice dismissed his lawyers and now plans to represent himself at the trial.
He has suggested he wanted to argue the killings were in “defence of others” – namely, members of the Taliban fighting Americans in Afghanistan.
The trial judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, has so far denied that strategy.
Death penalty
Witnesses say the attack occurred in a building where hundreds of unarmed soldiers, some about to deploy to Afghanistan, were waiting for vaccines and routine checkups.
Hasan walked inside with two handguns, climbed onto a desk and shouted “Allahu Akbar!” – an Arabic phrase meaning “God is great!” Then he fired, pausing only to reload.
More than 30 people were wounded in the shooting.
Military law prohibits him from entering a guilty plea because authorities are seeking the death penalty.
Although the Hasan case is unusually complex, experts say the military justice system is unaccustomed to dealing with death penalty cases and has struggled to avoid overturned sentences.
No active-duty US soldier has been executed since 1961.
If Hasan is convicted and sentenced to death there are likely years, if not decades, of appeals ahead.
The Fort Hood shooting trial has been delayed over and over, often due to requests from Hasan.
Source:Al Jazeera and Agencies
