Major Nidal Hassan, MD, has been convicted in the mass murders at Ft. Hood on November 5, 2009. He acted as his own attorney at trial, offering neither substantive defense during trial or any at all during sentencing. He told a military mental health panel in December 2010 that if he were to die by lethal injection, "I would still be a martyr."
The execution of Hassan is likely to have worldwide ramifications. As a so-called martyr, his execution could be used as a recruiting tool by Islamofascists and spark riots throughout the Arab world. It would endanger Americans everywhere, but in particular, it would endanger troops still in theater in the Middle East. And rather than punish Major Hassan, it would give him the martyrdom he seeks. Life without parole is a far more apt sentence.