Posted on 12/05/2012 9:29:13 AM PST by DanMiller
Getting a clean conviction of Major Hasan is more important than whether he has a clean face.
The court martial of Army Major Nidal Hasan, who murdered thirteen people at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009 and wounded thirty-two others while screaming Allah Akbar, has dragged on too long. If he had been forcibly shaved he would have had grounds to continue the charade and, if eventually convicted, to appeal that conviction for many years.
Defense counsel likely tried to inject legal error into the proceedings as grounds for post-conviction appeals. That's what defense counsel try to do when the evidence of guilt is overwhelming. On December 3th the military judge, Colonel Gregory Gross, was removed principally because he may have shown bias by insisting that Major Hasan's beard be shaved.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which sits in Washington, D.C., said in its 10-page opinion that because of a variety of factors, a reasonable person “would harbor doubts about the military judge’s impartiality.” The court did not say that the trial judge was actually biased, officials noted, but instead ordered the removal for the appearance of bias. The court also set aside the six previous contempt convictions against Hasan, who has refused orders from Gross to shave his beard and conform with Army grooming standards in the courtroom, though it did not issue a ruling on whether Hasan has a right to wear his beard under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.A new trial judge will be detailed to the court-martial and will decide on the matter when the case goes back on the record in open court.
That ruling riles but is correct pragmatically. Of course Major Hasan is required to be clean shaven; he is still an Army officer and was appearing at his court martial. He apparently did not discover his Islamic obligation to grow a beard until after his court martial had begun. Perhaps defense counsel suggested that a beard could disrupt the proceedings and thereby provide grounds for appeal later; perhaps Major Hasan just decided to grow a beard because of a conveniently timed realization that his Religion of Peace requires it. It does not matter which and there is, in any event, no way to determine why he did it. Was Judge Gross prejudiced against him? Only if requiring him to comply with grooming standards required of all other Army officers shows prejudice; it does not. That does not matter either. The important thing is that the court martial can now proceed, at least until defense counsel discovers additional bases for disruption and subsequent appeal.
If during his next court appearance Major Hasan wears a tutu, Michael Jackson moon boots and a head cover of the sort women are required to wear in Islamist places, the court martial should ignore the attempt at intentionally farcical insults and proceed with the trial. Otherwise, Major Hasan is likely to die of old age while supported by taxpayers as his appeals wend their way back and forth from the trial court through various levels of appeal, back to trial and on and on and on. That would be a disgrace to the military justice system and to the nation. A former Army JAG officer, I have long been very proud of the American system of military justice and would be outraged.
The important thing is to give him a fair trial where all of the relevant and clearly admissible evidence is considered, for the court to decide on his guilt or innocence and, if found guilty, to impose appropriate punishment.
A female military judge, Colonel Tara A. Osborn, has been designated as Colonel Gross' replacement. That may generate grounds for further delay, disruption and eventually appeal from a conviction. Those grounds may be no less specious than those that resulted in the replacement of Colonel Gross. Whether they are specious or valid matters little because in either event the trial may be delayed and disrupted further and the appeal further protracted. Here are two thoughts:
♦ Might the designation of a female military judge to preside over the trial of an Islamist male be deemed evidence of prejudice? Arguments to that effect could be made.
♦ If those arguments are rejected, must Colonel Osborn's head be covered in Islamist fashion during the trial so as not to offend Major Hasan's sense of Islamist decency? Would a failure to do that be deemed evidence of prejudice? Stranger things have happened.
It would have made more sense to designate a male military judge to preside -- if moving the trial forward was the goal and if delaying Major Hasan's conviction and execution indefinitely was not the goal. Perhaps further thought will be given to this matter; it should be, soon.
He gets to keep his beard?
Why doesn’t he get to keep his hair?
Either way I’d be satisfied to see his head on fence post....
Shave his face with a laser.
They should’ve just shot many more times to make sure he didn’t live.
Is it any wonder that we can no longer win a war?
Now you know why Shakespear said (from the play Henry lV) “ First thing we do, is kill all the lawyers. “
keep the beard, lose the pulse - works for me
I’m trying to figure out if the military “justice” system is this easily played by any mass murderer or only if the murderer’s a haji?
I want to know why nobama has appointed this traitor and murderer to some Czar position or other????? What’s the delay?????
I’m cool with it. Use his refusal to shave as evidence of his devotion to the most radical sect of Islam. Use the stupid beard as evidence to help execute him.
” I’d be satisfied to see his head on fence post....” then he and obama would be twin post turtles!
Schedule a good old fashioned muzzy soccer game in his honor about 5 minutes after the drop off. That or drop him on the north side where the tanks practice.
Use his refusal to shave as evidence of his devotion to the most radical sect of Islam. Use the stupid beard as evidence to help execute him.
It need not, and should not, be used explicitly by the prosecution. If the judge permitted that it could later be held on appeal to be reversible error.
I have not reviewed the panel of officers (all holding the rank of Major or above) who will eventually decide Major Hasan's guilt or innocence and, assuming the former, the punishment to be imposed (both, of course, subject to review by the convening authority and then appeal). However, Fort Hood is an Armor base and it seems likely that many on the panel are in the Armor branch, a combat branch. It also seems likely that most have been in the Army and probably in Armor for at least fifteen years. They are more likely than non-combat branch officers to take offense not only at Major Hasan's crime but at his overt efforts to mock the military and therefore to mock them.
They don't need to be told about what they have seen with their own eyes.
Hasan’s playing the system...and winning. I hope he chokes to death and saves the taxpayers a whole lot of money and time.
The beard is a distraction. The gov is all too happy to delay this travesty. The longer they delay, the more people forget what the bearded savage did.
Keep the beard. It makes him look more like a terrorist jihadist.
Bearded savages are lower than bacteria that eat dead dung beetles.
The important thing is to give him a fair trial where all of the relevant and clearly admissible evidence is considered, for the court to decide on his guilt or innocence and, if found guilty, to impose appropriate punishment.
But, how can that be? I suspect a ruling will come down that a military court has no authority over him because he is muslim, and therefor not subject to the UCMJ.
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