DELIBERATIONS

Fort Hood Shooter Guilty on All Counts

On all counts; no sentence yet.

Nidal Malik Hasan was found guilty on Friday of killing 13 people and wounding 30 others in a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood (Texas) military base in 2009. Hasan, a U.S. Army psychologist who chose to represent himself in the trial, has admitted from the beginning to carrying out the shooting against his fellow soldiers as a jihad in the name of Muslim insurgents killed by the U.S., so the guilty verdict is not a surprise. Whether or not the jury, comprised of 13 military officers of high rank, will unanimously agree to sentence him to death is the real question. If they do, he would be one of only five prisoners on the military's death row. If the jurors cannot all agree, Hasan could go to prison for life. Additional testimony from survivors of the shooting will start off the sentencing phase of the court-martial.