Soldier Sentenced To Death For Fort Hood Shooting

A military jury has sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for killing 13 people during the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

Hasan never denied being the gunman and has said the attack on unarmed soldiers was motivated by a desire to protect Muslim insurgents fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Because he did not dispute the allegations, the trial has been primarily a pursuit of the death penalty.

The same jury that sentenced him to death Wednesday also found him guilty last week in the attack, which also wounded more than 30 people at the Texas military base.

Military prosecutors believed that any sentence short of death would deny.

Before an execution date is set, the sentence will face years, if not decades, of appeals.

The Army psychiatrist has been representing himself during his trial. But his behavior has only stoked suspicion that his ultimate goal was martyrdom, in the form of a death sentence that would allow him to fulfill what prosecutors have described as a "jihad duty'' under his Islamic faith.

Even when his standby lawyers pleaded in vain to argue on his behalf, he described them as "overzealous.''

At the start of his trial he gave a brief opening statement, during which he said evidence would show he was the shooter and described himself as a soldier who had "switched sides.''

But he called no witnesses and didn't testify, and he questioned only three of the nearly 90 witnesses called by prosecutors before he was convicted. He also gave no closing statement.

During the sentencing phase of this trial, Hasan again presented no witnesses or evidence. And he questioned none of prosecutors' witnesses: dozens of widows, parents, children and other relatives of those killed who gave  emotional testimony about their lives since the attack.