Posted on Oct 30, 2015
Military court upholds death sentence in 2003 ‘fragging’ case
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From Stars & Stripes:
WASHINGTON — The nation’s highest military court has affirmed the conviction and death sentence for Hasan K. Akbar, who admitted killing two fellow U.S. soldiers at the start of the Iraq War.
In a closely split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces rejected claims by Akbar that his original defense team was ineffective. Akbar argued at trial that he was mentally ill when he killed two and wounded 14 in the March 2003 attack in Kuwait.
“We conclude that if there ever was a case where a military court-martial panel would impose the death penalty, this was it,” Judge Kevin A. Ohlson wrote.
The court’s 3-2 decision leaves Akbar one of six military men to be facing execution at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kan. Though he had launched a wide-ranging challenge to his conviction and sentence, a big part of the case decided Wednesday dealt with his claim of ineffective counsel.
“With the benefit of appellate hindsight, we could dissect every move of these trial defense counsel and then impose our own views on how they could have handled certain matters differently and, perhaps, better,” Ohlson noted. “However, that is not the standard of review we are obligated to apply.”
Ohlson, a former Army paratrooper and federal prosecutor appointed to the court by President Barack Obama, observed that Akbar was “represented by two experienced military attorneys who devoted more than two years to preparing and presenting the defense in this case.”
The two dissenting judges countered that Akbar’s trial defense attorneys fell short, with specific mistakes that included providing Akbar’s 313-page diary to the court-martial panel.
“These pages included a running diatribe against Caucasians and the United States dating back 12 years, and included repeated references to (his) desire to kill American soldiers ‘for Allah’ and for ‘jihad,' ” Judge James E. Baker noted.
Baker, who has since retired, explained that “the defense intended the diary to reflect (Akbar’s) descent into mental illness,” but that it was “offered without adequate explanation, expert or otherwise.”
More broadly, Baker observed that the defense team had a hard time in making the case for Akbar because “the armed forces have no guidelines regarding the qualifications, training, or performance required of capital defense counsel.”
Born Mark Fidel Kools, the son of a felon and the product of broken home, Akbar was from a young age “indoctrinated in the Nation of Islam’s militant teachings,” defense attorneys recounted in a brief.
Nonetheless a top student in high school, Akbar graduated in 1997 from the University of California, Davis with dual degrees in aeronautical and mechanical engineering. Akbar took nine years to complete college, subsequently enlisting in the Army in 1998.
He was a sergeant assigned to the 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division when his unit deployed to Kuwait. Early on the morning of March 23, 2003, as the U.S. invasion of Iraq was unfolding, Akbar threw incendiary and fragmentation grenades and fired his M-4 rifle in his solo assault on officers sleeping in several tents.
Army Capt. Christopher S. Seifert, a Pennsylvania native and intelligence officer, and Air Force Maj. Gregory L. Stone, a Boise, Idaho, resident and member of the Idaho Air National Guard, died in the attack.
Stone, the appeals court noted, “was killed from 83 shrapnel wounds.”
The Army’s subsequent investigation found evidence that Akbar had previously contemplated attacking his fellow soldiers.
“As soon as I am in Iraq, I am going to try and kill as many of them as possible,” Akbar wrote in a Feb. 4, 2003, diary entry, made public at his court-martial held at Fort Bragg, N.C.
The court-martial panel required only 2 1/2 hours to convict Akbar, a decision later upheld by the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Akbar’s attorneys subsequently challenged the conviction and death sentence in a massive 328-page brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, a panel of civilians based in Washington.
“Against all odds,” Army Capt. Aaron R. Inkenbrandt and Akbar’s other appellate attorneys wrote, “Akbar seemed fated for success, until mental illness weakened the resolve that for so long repressed years of deprivation.”
———
©2015 McClatchy Washington Bureau
Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at http://www.mcclatchydc.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
http://www.stripes.com/military-court-upholds-death-sentence-in-2003-fragging-case-1.363962
WASHINGTON — The nation’s highest military court has affirmed the conviction and death sentence for Hasan K. Akbar, who admitted killing two fellow U.S. soldiers at the start of the Iraq War.
In a closely split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces rejected claims by Akbar that his original defense team was ineffective. Akbar argued at trial that he was mentally ill when he killed two and wounded 14 in the March 2003 attack in Kuwait.
“We conclude that if there ever was a case where a military court-martial panel would impose the death penalty, this was it,” Judge Kevin A. Ohlson wrote.
The court’s 3-2 decision leaves Akbar one of six military men to be facing execution at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kan. Though he had launched a wide-ranging challenge to his conviction and sentence, a big part of the case decided Wednesday dealt with his claim of ineffective counsel.
“With the benefit of appellate hindsight, we could dissect every move of these trial defense counsel and then impose our own views on how they could have handled certain matters differently and, perhaps, better,” Ohlson noted. “However, that is not the standard of review we are obligated to apply.”
Ohlson, a former Army paratrooper and federal prosecutor appointed to the court by President Barack Obama, observed that Akbar was “represented by two experienced military attorneys who devoted more than two years to preparing and presenting the defense in this case.”
The two dissenting judges countered that Akbar’s trial defense attorneys fell short, with specific mistakes that included providing Akbar’s 313-page diary to the court-martial panel.
“These pages included a running diatribe against Caucasians and the United States dating back 12 years, and included repeated references to (his) desire to kill American soldiers ‘for Allah’ and for ‘jihad,' ” Judge James E. Baker noted.
Baker, who has since retired, explained that “the defense intended the diary to reflect (Akbar’s) descent into mental illness,” but that it was “offered without adequate explanation, expert or otherwise.”
More broadly, Baker observed that the defense team had a hard time in making the case for Akbar because “the armed forces have no guidelines regarding the qualifications, training, or performance required of capital defense counsel.”
Born Mark Fidel Kools, the son of a felon and the product of broken home, Akbar was from a young age “indoctrinated in the Nation of Islam’s militant teachings,” defense attorneys recounted in a brief.
Nonetheless a top student in high school, Akbar graduated in 1997 from the University of California, Davis with dual degrees in aeronautical and mechanical engineering. Akbar took nine years to complete college, subsequently enlisting in the Army in 1998.
He was a sergeant assigned to the 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division when his unit deployed to Kuwait. Early on the morning of March 23, 2003, as the U.S. invasion of Iraq was unfolding, Akbar threw incendiary and fragmentation grenades and fired his M-4 rifle in his solo assault on officers sleeping in several tents.
Army Capt. Christopher S. Seifert, a Pennsylvania native and intelligence officer, and Air Force Maj. Gregory L. Stone, a Boise, Idaho, resident and member of the Idaho Air National Guard, died in the attack.
Stone, the appeals court noted, “was killed from 83 shrapnel wounds.”
The Army’s subsequent investigation found evidence that Akbar had previously contemplated attacking his fellow soldiers.
“As soon as I am in Iraq, I am going to try and kill as many of them as possible,” Akbar wrote in a Feb. 4, 2003, diary entry, made public at his court-martial held at Fort Bragg, N.C.
The court-martial panel required only 2 1/2 hours to convict Akbar, a decision later upheld by the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Akbar’s attorneys subsequently challenged the conviction and death sentence in a massive 328-page brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, a panel of civilians based in Washington.
“Against all odds,” Army Capt. Aaron R. Inkenbrandt and Akbar’s other appellate attorneys wrote, “Akbar seemed fated for success, until mental illness weakened the resolve that for so long repressed years of deprivation.”
———
©2015 McClatchy Washington Bureau
Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at http://www.mcclatchydc.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
http://www.stripes.com/military-court-upholds-death-sentence-in-2003-fragging-case-1.363962
Death Penalty
Court Martial
Justice
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 120
108
108
0
Due process has been served
Death is warranted and deserved for the acts he committed.
Death is warranted and deserved for the acts he committed.
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CPT Harbourcay .
PO2 Mcdaniel Woods - you are absolutely correct, my letter was poorly stated. My best NCO's were black. Let me be specific, LBJ and McNamara came up with project 50,000, a program which lowered the mental standards to allow drafting more low intelligence people-- the plan was presented that we would take people out of the ghettos and barrios and make them butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers, in reality, if they could hear thunder and see lightening they were made riflemen. It was from the ranks of the Project 50,000 that 90% of our discipline problems came from. Virtually 100% of the fraggers came from this tortured plan. This is the plan which caught Cassius Clay up in his draft problem--- he flunked the draft test the first time, the minimum score was lowered and he then refused to go. My sincere apologies for my poor written and insulting first letter. My problem is not with our many outstanding black soldiers but with the military justice system which lets murders live and destroys the careers of many good soldiers.
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CW3 Carl Bandy
CPT Harbourcay . - Been a while but it was actually Project 100,000. Back then we called it "McNamara's 100,000". Other than that, I totally agree with you.
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CPT Harbourcay .
yup, I recall that now---- every Article 15 and Spec Court Martial I was involved in, the defendent came from this program. When they had the riot at the Long Binh Jail, the bad guys were all from McNamara's program.
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PO2 Robert Cuminale
SGT(P) (Join to see) - So have I. I watched my colonoscopy. The doctor didn't know because I was on my side and he couldn't see my face. I've had 3 detached retinas where the surgery involved nerve blocks under anesthesia and then they want you awake for the rest of the surgery so you can talk to them. The same with my two cataract surgeries.
But that is not the issue. The doses given are massive and what is given for surgery is nowhere near those levels. People die from heroin overdoses everyday. Most are found with the spike still hanging out of their arm or wherever.
This "cocktail" is pure BS and is complicating what should be a simple procedure. If my vet can put my cats and dogs down painlessly (I've held every one of them during it) then it should be just as easily done on a human. If you can, watch a horse being put down. 900-1200 lbs and it's no different than with a small animal.
The real issue here is the squeamishness of society which wants this process but doesn't want the gore that goes with it. They delude themselves with the peacefulness of the process. They want to believe they are more humane than the person who committed the crimes that brought him to the point they are now all involved with. There is no peace to the process. It may not be Drawing and Quartering but the result is the same.
The argument is made that we are reducing our humanity to the level of the killer when actually we are reaffirming the height with which we hold humanity and life. The killer has stolen that which cannot be recompensed and must pay the only price that is equal. But it isn't really. His victim probably suffered far more than he will. There was no anxiety relieving pill beforehand, no muscle relaxant. No soft voices, no spiritual counselor. He gets off pretty easy.
But that is not the issue. The doses given are massive and what is given for surgery is nowhere near those levels. People die from heroin overdoses everyday. Most are found with the spike still hanging out of their arm or wherever.
This "cocktail" is pure BS and is complicating what should be a simple procedure. If my vet can put my cats and dogs down painlessly (I've held every one of them during it) then it should be just as easily done on a human. If you can, watch a horse being put down. 900-1200 lbs and it's no different than with a small animal.
The real issue here is the squeamishness of society which wants this process but doesn't want the gore that goes with it. They delude themselves with the peacefulness of the process. They want to believe they are more humane than the person who committed the crimes that brought him to the point they are now all involved with. There is no peace to the process. It may not be Drawing and Quartering but the result is the same.
The argument is made that we are reducing our humanity to the level of the killer when actually we are reaffirming the height with which we hold humanity and life. The killer has stolen that which cannot be recompensed and must pay the only price that is equal. But it isn't really. His victim probably suffered far more than he will. There was no anxiety relieving pill beforehand, no muscle relaxant. No soft voices, no spiritual counselor. He gets off pretty easy.
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SSG Randall P.
SFC Everett Oliver - The last execution by the U.S. Military was the hanging of Army PFC John A. Bennett, on 13 April 1961. There haven't been any since. There are six inmates on death row, according to Wikipedia (Not the best source).
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49
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That is great news, Hasan K. Akbar wounded an old friend of mine in his cowardly attack. I am thankful that he will be executed for his traitorous act against his fellow soldiers as he shouted "Allahu akbar" while he tossed the grenade.
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SSG Brian Heitman
LCpl Tom Temen - Furthermore it's Scriptural: “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 NKJV
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 NKJV
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PO3 Darryl Limpf Sr
SGT Joseph Schmalzel - and may that rope be greased in pig fat (we wouldn't want to scratch his neck, that would be cruel and unusual punishment. snicker)
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