Two Important Military Verdicts Handed Down Today

So end two important cases in the history of America’s military involvement in Afghanistan. Although the defendants and their crimes are unrelated to one another, their stories are equally depressing and disturbing in nature---and they came to an end on the same day. The guilt phase of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s court martial came to a close this afternoon. The Ft. Hood shooter, who corresponded with the late Anwar al-Awlaki, was found guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder by a military jury. All thirteen members of the jury will, beginning on Monday, enter the sentencing phase. The jury has to unanimously vote to execute him by lethal injection, and the president has to approve---or he will be sentenced to life in prison. Maj. Hasan’s trial was delayed many times since he opened fire at the military base in November 2009. Among other reasons: he refused to shave his beard for religious reasons in violation of Army policy, the first judge who was overseeing his court martial was removed for bias, and he fired his lawyers and represented himself. Manny Fernandez of the New York Times has more. Meanwhile, Jack Healy of the Times tells us that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was sentenced to life without parole for killing 16 Afghan civilians when he went on a shooting rampage through two Afghan villages last year. Unlike Maj. Hasan, Sgt. Bales pled guilty, thus taking the death penalty off the table. He also apologized and expressed remorse for his actions. The military jury was deliberating between life without parole, or its only other option, life with the possibility of parole after twenty years. In an interesting move, Sgt. Bales's attorneys declined to call mental health experts to testify about his mental state, and instead, sought to demonstrate the soundness of his character as a father, friend, and soldier before the incident. Rick Rojas of the Los Angeles Times also reports on the trial.