Judge blocks witnesses in Fort Hood shooting case

Prosecutors in the court-martial of Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan are slowly nearing the end of their witness list, now somewhat shorter after the military judge overseeing proceedings blocked certain evidence and witnesses.

Judge Col. Tara Osborn refused to allow prosecutors to refer to Hasan Akbar, a Muslim U.S. soldier who was sentenced to death for attacking fellow soldiers while in Kuwait at the outset of the U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Prosecutor Col. Steve Henricks had told the court he wanted to prove Hasan was a "copycat."

But Akbar is not on trial, Osborn responded, and introducing him into the Hasan proceedings would "only open the door to a mini-trial." It would create, she said, "a confusion of issues, unfair prejudice, waste of time and undue delay."

Also blocked from the trial was evidence relating to Hasan's previous interest in conscientious-objector status and academic presentations, deemed old and irrelevant by the judge.

But Osborn said she would allow evidence about searches Hasan did on the Internet around the time of the November 2009 attack as well as any websites he had listed as favorites.

"It strikes me as an effort to leave no stone unturned," said Eugene Fidell, a co-founder and former president of the National Institute of Military Justice and currently a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School. "It is what it is. Ultimately, I’m surprised by the government’s efforts to make this matter more complicated — and greedy in getting as much aggravating material as possible into the matter. I think the judge has called this correctly."

While the prosecution was attempting to use the blocked material to present motives for the attack, in which 13 people were killed and 32 others wounded, Hasan has already made one attempt to discuss his motivations. He tried to raise the argument that he killed his fellow soldiers to protect Muslims from U.S. military action, referring directly to the Taliban in Afghanistan, where he was set to deploy.

In his opening statement, Hasan, acting as his own attorney, said, "There's death and destruction for both sides. That is for both friend and foe. But the evidence presented at this trial will only show one side."

The 42-year-old soldier, who is paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair after authorities shot him in the back as the attack ended, could face the death penalty if convicted.

Al Jazeera