No defense from suspect in 2009 Fort Hood shooting

8/21/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Fort-Hood-Shooting-28

    In this courtroom sketch Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sits in court for his court-martial in Fort Hood, Texas on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013. Military prosecutors rested their case against the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people during the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood. (AP Photo/Brigitte Woosley)

    ASSOCIATED PRESS

  • In this courtroom sketch defense witness Stephen Bennett, right, testifies as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, left, and presiding judge Col. Tara Osborn look on in court during Hasan's court-martial in Fort Hood, Texas Tuesday.
    In this courtroom sketch defense witness Stephen Bennett, right, testifies as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, left, and presiding judge Col. Tara Osborn look on in court during Hasan's court-martial in Fort Hood, Texas Tuesday.

    FORT HOOD, Texas  — The soldier on trial for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood has rested his case without calling any witnesses.

    Maj. Nidal Hasan is representing himself but told the judge today that he wouldn’t be calling any witnesses in his defense.

    Hasan has sat mostly silent during the trial’s first two weeks, raising few objections and briefly questioning only three of prosecutors’ nearly 90 witnesses.

    During his brief opening statement, he said evidence would show he was the shooter, and he said he’d “switched sides.”

    The American-born Muslim suggested before trial that he wanted to argue the killings were in defense of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. A judge rejected that strategy.

    Hasan is accused of killing 13 people at the Texas military base. He faces the death penalty if convicted.