Testimony ends in Fort Hood sentencing

Army Maj. Nidal Hasan has one last chance to speak Wednesday before a military jury decides his punishment in the killings of 13 in a shooting rampage here that left 31 others wounded.

So far, Hasan has been a man of few words — even while acting as his own attorney. On Tuesday, he said “the defense rests” after the last of 20 witnesses in the sentencing phase of his trial told of the devastating fallout to victims and their families.

He declined to call any witnesses and did not ask questions of any of the family members of the victims or three of the injured who testified during the sentencing hearing. Those two days of emotional tales of personal loss of a husband, wife, son or daughter, ended Tuesday. Deliberations begin today following closing arguments.

After the jury had been released Tuesday, Hasan objected to a motion by his standby defense counsel that would have helped the military psychiatrist convicted last week in the November 2009 shooting spree. Hasan faces a possible death sentence.

“If nobody is making a case for life, there is only death, and that is something we cannot abide by,” said Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, a standby defense lawyer.

Hasan, paralyzed and in a wheelchair as a result of the shooting spree, was pale in the courtroom and continued to wear a knit Army green cap, which he always removes when the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, enters.

Throughout the sentencing phase, Osborn has continued to ask Hasan, a Virginia- born Muslim, many questions. During the past two days, he often responded with a curt, “No, thank you,” “No, Ma’am” or “I understand.”

Hasan could be the first servicemember executed since 1961. Alternatively, he could face a life sentence.

Earlier, prosecution witness Christine Gaffaney, widow of Capt. John Gaffaney of San Diego, said she is still “very lost” by his death.

“We never thought we would be apart,” she said.