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Hasan Jury Can Hear About Unborn Child

Update: Judge Col Osborn denied Hasan’s request for yet another delay, during which he was considering hiring an attorney after having asked to represent himself.

Military judge Col Tara Osborn said the jury can hear about the cries of a pregnant Soldier who was killed during the Fort Hood massacre:

A military judge says witness testimony about a dying pregnant soldier’s cries of “My baby! My baby!” will be allowed during the murder trial of the Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage.

That’s particularly interesting because the Army chose not to file a murder charge for the unborn child, even though the UCMJ permits it.  The child would have nearly been four years old by now.

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Kitten Killer Gets Jail, but Military Files No Charges in Child’s Death

A former US Marine accused of wringing a kitten’s neck received 30 days in jail from a civil circuit judge:

Circuit Judge Thomas Forehand…found Angelo Michael Stango, 27, guilty Friday of misdemeanor animal cruelty and sentenced him to a year with 11 months suspended.

Violence against the cute and cuddly is punishable (though, oddly enough, there was apparently no body to prove the cat was actually dead).  There will certainly be some who claim the former Marine Sergeant should have received a harsher punishment.

As an interesting comparison, the US military has apparently chosen not to charge US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan with killing the unborn child of one of his (alleged) victims, US Army Pvt Francheska Velez.  Stango’s kitten killing was tried in civil court — notably, there is no UCMJ article specifically addressing animal cruelty.

There is a UCMJ article specifically addressing killing an unborn child:  Read more

Fort Hood Victims’ Families Grieve, Wait for Trial

The second anniversary of the massacre at Fort Hood passed quietly on 5 November 2011.  The trial of US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the wheelchair-bound accused who faces execution if convicted, is scheduled to begin in March. 

On Saturday in a small private ceremony, some victims’ relatives planned to place wreaths on the fence that now surrounds the boarded-up building where the shootings occurred. Michael Cahill’s widow, Read more