Hasan circus continues
After yesterday’s recess, Judge Osborne told the lawyers who are assisting Nidal Hasan in his defense (and I use the term in it’s loosest sense) that they will continue serving in that role. But the New York Times reports that those lawyers aren’t especially happy about that;
But the standby attorneys were adamant and said they would appeal to a higher court.
“We believe your order is causing us to violate our rules of professional conduct,” Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, Hasan’s lead standby defense attorney, told the judge.
The exchange prompted Osborn to briefly recess the trial. But the hearing later resumed to allow witness testimony and the standby attorneys were told to continue in their current duties. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the attorneys had filed an appeal.
Poppe had told the judge Wednesday that if Hasan were allowed to continue on his own, he and Hasan’s other standby attorneys wanted their roles minimized so Hasan couldn’t ask them for help with a strategy they opposed. They said they couldn’t watch Hasan fulfill a death wish.
“It becomes clear his goal is to remove impediments or obstacles to the death penalty and is working toward a death penalty,” Poppe told the judge Wednesday. That strategy, he argued, “is repugnant to defense counsel and contrary to our professional obligations.”
Oh, well, maybe they see it as another way to delay the inevitable. I mean it took months to decide that Hasan can keep his beard. I know this one seems like a real legal playground, but it won’t compare to the antics TSO is going to see when he goes to Guantanamo next week.
Category: Terror War
what a waste of air
I think his plan to work for the death penalty is a fine plan!
It’s not my belief that defense lawyers should try to get a guilty client out of his just punishment at all costs.
He did it. He admits to doing it. He brags about doing it. Then skip to sentencing and give him what he wants.
Wait, what? TSO’s going to Gitmo?? What’d I miss?
Did Psul get TSO incarcerated at GITMO? Does he keep The Beard?
hahahahahahah
For a minute I thought it might have been a case of conscious against trying to marginalize justice for pure evil. Instead it’s evil complaining about not being able to subvert justice for evil.
What scum, lawyers and Hasan.
Go fuck yourselves defense team.
We know that Hasan wanted to plead guilty, but was not allowed to due to the rule against accepting a guilty plea when the death penalty is in play. So, this is his attempt to get to the same result by another route.
I sympathize with the defense team to an extent; the normal role of defense counsel is to, at minimum, force the prosecution to prove its case, and to at least minimize the damage to the defendant if acquittal is not in the cards. It’s just not in the defense lawyer’s nature to help his client get convicted. On the other hand, a lawyer’s role is to help the client achieve the goals the client wants, so long as those goals are lawful. So, if the client WANTS to be convicted, and WANTS to get the maximum penalty, why not go with it?
People who are paralysed suffer pain, in one form or another. I think Hasan just wants to be put out of his misery. And I have no problem with that.
I agree, PN, but do it quietly, in an out of the way place, with no public present. Only alligators and wild hogs.
I think Hasan just wants to be put out of his misery. And I have no problem with that.
I’m not that generous. I’d rather see him live a long, long life in Gen Pop. Yes, I know he’s wheelchair bound. Yes, I know what’s likely to happen to him. No, I don’t care.
The client wanting the death penalty only sets him up as a martyr, regardless of how any of us feel. I do like a sentence of life imprisonment and eating a pork based diet. Or something along that path.
@9 “…I don’t care.”
Nah, me neither. Whatever it takes to lower his status to compost works for me.
“…contrary to our professional obligations.”
Your professional obligations demand that you provide the best legal defense within the parameters of the law. Your professional obligations do not require you to be a drama queen and pursue an ideological agenda that anathema to justice. The military is going to hell under “leadership” that is more politically-oriented than mission-focused. You might contend that that is as it’s always been, and there’s some truth to that. The officer corps has always been packed with ass-kissing incompetents. But this modern version actively tries to subvert the core principles of military service.
Apparently the defense rested with no witnesses called.
fxn.ws/1d4ZTes
fixing up the link:
http://fxn.ws/1d4ZTes