Fort Hood Court Martial: Defense lawyers raise insanity defense
Posted at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126291467396720881.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories
By BEN CASSELMAN of the Wall Street Journal
Defense attorneys for accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan are racing to collect evidence that could show their client is insane before a psychiatric evaluation is completed.
The Army on Wednesday evening told Maj. Hasan’s defense lawyers that it had convened a so-called sanity board to evaluate whether Maj. Hasan is fit to stand trial. The three-person panel is expected to make a recommendation by the end of February, a timeline that has defense attorneys frustrated.
Maj. Hasan is accused of killing 12 fellow soldiers and one civilian in a Nov. 5 rampage at the Texas Army base. Prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty.
Maj. Hasan’s mental status is shaping up to be a central issue in the case. John P. Galligan, the retired Army colonel leading the defense team, has said he was considering pursuing an insanity defense, and the Army has appointed a prosecutor with experience in such cases.
Legal experts said an insanity defense could be Mr. Galligan’s best chance of winning an acquittal for his client, or at least avoiding the death penalty. But it wouldn’t be easy. Defendants, both in civilian and military trials, rarely are found not guilty on the basis of their mental state. A 2006 study by three Army psychiatrists found that in the more than 21,000 courts-martial between 1990 and 2006, only six defendants were found not guilty by reason of insanity.
“It’s just a hard sell,” said Hugh Overholt, a North Carolina attorney specializing in defending military clients. “I’ve had a case where I was absolutely convinced the guy was nuts,” and still couldn’t win an acquittal, he said.
When Maj. Robert Martin, an Army attorney, got caught passing bad checks and defrauding his clients of about $100,000, the evidence against him was overwhelming. Mr. Martin’s lawyers argued that he was insane.
The attorneys brought in mental-health experts, including the chairman of Duke University’s Psychiatry Department, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder. They dug up evidence of his erratic behavior, including a bizarre get-rich-quick scheme involving selling honey-baked hams in Mexico. They argued their client committed his crimes while in a manic state during which he didn’t know the difference between right and wrong.
The strategy didn’t work. Mr. Martin was convicted, kicked out of the Army and sentenced to two years’ confinement. “To this day I’m satisfied that all of his misconduct occurred during his manic states,” said Mark Waple, the lead defense attorney in the case. Mr. Martin couldn’t be reached for comment.
Defense attorneys faced a similar challenge in the case of Hasan Akbar, an Army sergeant accused of killing two U.S. soldiers in a grenade attack in the early days of the Iraq war. Sgt. Akbar’s lawyers argued he had a history of depression and was too mentally ill to be capable of premeditation.
In 2005, an Army jury found Sgt. Akbar guilty and sentenced him to death. The defense is appealing the verdict. Col. Michael Mulligan, the officer who prosecuted Sgt. Akbar, recently joined the team that will prosecute Maj. Hasan.
In the case of Maj. Hasan, former colleagues and others who knew him have said he acted oddly in the months leading up to the shootings. While posted at the Fort Hood Army base, he lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, a place far smaller than he could have afforded on his salary. In the days before the shootings, he gave away many of his belongings.
Mr. Galligan said he was looking into such reports for evidence that his client was mentally unstable. But he said he hasn’t yet been given access to reports or records from before the Nov. 5 shooting, and the Army’s investigation into that period isn’t completed.
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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.