Thaindian News

June 2, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): The accused Ford Hood defendant Maj. Nidal Hasan has been granted a four month delay in an evidentiary hearing. Hasan is accused of killing 13 people and injuring 32. The military psychiatrist Hasan went in a mass shooting at the Fort Hood deployment center on Nov. 5.

During this deadly attack, Hasan, the Fort Hood defendant, was shot and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He made his first appearance in the court today in a wheelchair. The incident was the worst mass shooting in the history of a U.S. base.

With a sad face, Hasan wheeled himself towards the defense table and answered all the questions with a soft and simple ‘yes sir’.

According to the officials, Hasan has stayed at the Brooke Army Medical Center for more than five months after the shootings.

The Fort Hood defendant could not present any testimony during the hearing today. Hasan’s attorneys said that they had not received all the documents required to prepare a defense. These included DNA test results, crime scene videos and FBI files on Hasan’s supposed contact with U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. So, Col. James Pohl granted them a delay to collect the documents and the next court date was set for Oct. 4.

Earlier, just two weeks after the shootings, Hasan had to face a judge for the initial hearing in his hospital room at San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center. As per the military court system, Hasan has the provision of facing an Article 32 hearing first. In such cases, a judge hears from the witnesses to see whether the case can be moved for trial.