Jury Returns Death Sentence

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Gerry Broome/AP Photo
Jury Returns Death Sentence in GI Killings
By ESTES THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A military jury sentenced a soldier to death Thursday for a grenade and rifle attack on his own comrades during the opening days of the Iraq invasion, a barrage that killed two officers and that prosecutors said was driven by religious extremism.
Sgt. Hasan Akbar, who gave a brief, barely audible apology hours earlier, stood at attention between his lawyers as the verdict was delivered. He showed no emotion.

He could have been sentenced to life in prison with or without parole for the early morning March 2003 attack, which also wounded 14 fellow members of the Army's 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait.

The 15-person military jury, which last week took just two and a half hours to convict Akbar of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, deliberated for about seven hours in the sentencing phase. After jurors reached a verdict, they voted on whether to reconsider the decision after one juror asked that they do so.

The sentence will be automatically appealed. If Akbar is executed, it would be by lethal injection.

"I want to apologize for the attack that occurred. I felt that my life was in jeopardy, and I had no other options. I also want to ask you for forgiveness," Akbar told the jury before it deliberated in the sentencing phase.

Akbar, 34, spoke for less than a minute, delivering an unsworn statement that could not be cross-examined. He spoke in such a low voice that even prosecutors sitting nearby had trouble hearing, with one lawyer even cupping his ear.

While the defense contends Akbar was too mentally ill to plan the attack, they have never disputed that he threw grenades into troop tents in the early morning darkness and then fired on soldiers in the ensuing chaos. Army Capt. Chris Seifert, 27, and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, were killed.

Prosecutors say Akbar launched the attack at his camp - days before the soldiers were to move into Iraq - because he was concerned about U.S. troops killing fellow Muslims in the Iraq war.

"He is a hate-filled, ideologically driven murderer," chief prosecutor Lt. Col. Michael Mulligan said. He added that Akbar wrote in his diary in 1997, "My life will not be complete unless America is destroyed."

Akbar is the first American since the Vietnam era to be prosecuted on charges of murdering a fellow soldier during wartime.

Defense attorney Maj. David Coombs told jurors that a sentence of life without parole would allow Akbar to be treated for mental illness and possibly rehabilitated.

"Death is an absolute punishment, a punishment of last resort," Coombs said.

A defense psychiatrist testified that although Akbar was legally sane and understood the consequences of his attack, he suffered from forms of paranoia and schizophrenia.

If given a death sentence, Akbar would join five others on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The last U.S. military execution was in 1961.
 
I bet the other soldiers with names like Hasan Akbar are getting a little more attention when it comes time to FBI background checks.

He's pretty lucky he didn't already take one to the back of the head when they caught him in the field. JMO
 
derek said:
I bet the other soldiers with names like Hasan Akbar are getting a little more attention when it comes time to FBI background checks.

He's pretty lucky he didn't already take one to the back of the head when they caught him in the field. JMO

He might be wishing now that he had taken one to the back of the head. I remember being in shock when I heard he was one of ours. Is that why he joined?? IIRC, he said he didn't want to kill other muslims. Couldn't he have filed conscientious objector, or something? I mean for crying out loud - he can't kill any of them, but it's okay to kill his own??? I don't get it...
 
Lynne, the problem is that WE are not "his own"! Our enemy is "his own"!!

He should never have been allowed in the service.

Let's hope that the appeals process is a lot shorter than in the civilian "justice" system!
 
LenS said:
Lynne, the problem is that WE are not "his own"! Our enemy is "his own"!!

He should never have been allowed in the service.

Let's hope that the appeals process is a lot shorter than in the civilian "justice" system!

It will be swift.
 
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