Reuters: U.S.: Jury to resume deliberations in Fort Hood court-martial

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Jury to resume deliberations in Fort Hood court-martial Aug 23rd 2013, 11:01 Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people and wounding 31 in a November 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, is pictured in an undated Bell County Sheriff's Office photograph. Credit: Reuters/Bell County Sheriff's Office/Handout By Karen Brooks and Jana J. Pruet FORT HOOD, Texas | Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:01am EDT FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - Jurors were set to resume deliberations on Friday in the court-martial of U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, the psychiatrist who has admitted shooting dead 13 people and wounding 31 in a rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The 13 officers on the jury deliberated for more than three hours on Thursday before asking to be dismissed. The judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, agreed and said they would resume at 9 a.m. Central Daylight Time on Friday. Before going home on Thursday, the jury asked to hear again the testimony of military police officer Mark Todd, who shot Hasan and paralyzed him from the waist down to end the shooting rampage on the Army base on November 5, 2009. Hasan faces 13 charges of premeditated murder and 32 charges of attempted premeditated murder for the 31 people he wounded plus Todd, whom he fired at and missed. Twelve of those killed were active soldiers, and one was retired. Rereading Todd's testimony in court took a few minutes. Hasan, acting as his own defense lawyer, declined to make a closing argument on Thursday after prosecutors finished making theirs, putting the case in the hands of the jury. A day earlier, Hasan rested his case without calling witnesses and without testifying in his own defense. In their closing statement, prosecutors stressed that Hasan's act was premeditated. Hasan could receive the death penalty if the jury unanimously finds him guilty of one premeditated murder and convicts him of at least one other murder. "The accused went out that day with the intent of killing as many soldiers as he could," said Colonel Steve Hendricks, part of the prosecution team. "There was one caveat to that: Anyone else who tried to stop him." Hasan, 42, admitted to the jury in opening arguments that he was the shooter, saying he switched sides in what he considered a U.S. war on Islam. The American-born Muslim yelled "Allahu akbar" ("God is greatest" in Arabic) upon opening fire at an area where soldiers were being evaluated before being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, several witnesses said. The shootings came at a time of heightened tensions over the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which strained relations between the United States and countries with predominantly Muslim populations. (Editing by Daniel Trotta and Mohamad Zargham) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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