Court-martial of accused Fort Hood shooter to begin

Nearly four years after he went on a rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people died, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan faced court-martial Tuesday. Hasan, who has said the United States is at war with Islam will represent himself at the military trial, faces a possible death sentence. Hasan never denied he was the killer and claimed he was defending the Taliban leadership. Prosecutors charge Hasan, then a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, entered a room for soldiers undergoing processing Nov. 5, 2009, and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others. A shot fired by a responding civilian police officer paralyzed Hasan from the waist down. "When people can finally start reporting on the actual evidence that's introduced in this trial, people are going to see how incredibly brutal this was, and incredibly heartbreaking," Geoffrey Corn, a professor at the South Texas College of Law and retired Army lieutenant colonel, told Time magazine. "This is a heartbreaking case." Prosecutors charged Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Because he is representing himself, Hasan, who has twice fired court-appointed attorneys, can cross-examine his victims and testify. "I will be cross-examined by the man who shot me," Sgt. Alonzo M. Lunsford, who retired from the Army and is a high school basketball coach in Fayetteville, N.C., told The New York Times. Lunsford said Hasan walked in front of him, twice shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic) and opened fire. Lunsford, who was unarmed, was shot in the head and body. He said he played dead, but when he tried to exit the building, Hasan followed him and shot him in the back.