More: The moral dilemmas presented by the death penalty are various and pernicious. With the conviction of Major Nidal Hasan for murder at Ft. Hood, Texas and the sentence of death imposed upon him, inquiring minds will ask how was his crime legally different from Sgt. Bales' who received a negotiated life sentence. Hasan planned and killed 13 unarmed US soldiers standing in line outside a vaccination office preparing for their deployment in the name of jihad; Sgt. Bales walked a significant distance in the night twice to nearby villages, killed 16 Afghan civilians and then tried to conceal his crimes by burning the bodies. Both crimes were heinous; both crimes involved obvious premeditation; both were undisputed by the accused. Both bring great disrepute upon the US Army. So why the disparate sentences?
The sentences are not beyond understanding, but for reasons that may not be strictly, legally relevant. Bales murdered Afghan civilians in a combat zone; Hasan murdered America soldiers at home. Viewed from Muslim countries, especially those in a war zone the sentences may also confirm their worst opinions of predominantly white, Christian America and its system of justice. Bales was tried in Washington state, which has a death penalty but is relatively liberal in practice compared to Texas which has a notorious reputation for executing capital offenders. The trials were military, but the courts were assembled from people living in these states. Bales pleaded to murder to save his life, Hasan apparently wants to be executed as a Muslim martyr. He fired his attorneys and presented no defense or plea for mercy to the court. Bales was represented to the end, and his attorney made use of the facts that he is a husband and father of two sons who was deployed four times. Bales is a Catholic former high-school football captain, and a native Anglo-Saxon. Hasan is single and the oldest son of Palestinian immigrants. He was an officer and a medical doctor, both positions of trust. Of course, it is not for US Person to be judgmental in these cases, but it could be Mr. Obama's dilemma since he must personally decide whether Hasan achieves his goal of a martyr's death. It would be the first military execution in fifty years. The last US soldier to be hanged was a black man convicted of raping and attempting to murder an eleven year old white Austrian girl. Another dark-skinned American Muslim now awaits death at Leavenworth, Hasan Karim Akbar--formerly Mark Fidel Kools--for killing two American soldiers in Kuwait. One white, one dark; one Christian, one Muslim; both killed in cold blood multiple unarmed victims including women and children; one lives, one dies. It is not difficult to guess what Muslims around the world are thinking. You decide.
{26.08.23} S/Sgt Robert Bales pleaded guilty to murdering 16 Afghan civilians while they slept in their village huts and then burning their bodies to destroy the evidence. In return for his guilty plea the military courts martial sentenced him to life in prison without parole on Friday, but the presiding general officer still has the option to reduce the agreed upon sentence to life with parole in which case Bales could be out in twenty years. The sentence was not satisfactory to the surviving relatives of the murdered villagers who wanted Bales executed. Hajji Mohammad Wazir lost 11 family members in the crazed attack said, "justice was served the American way". He and several other villagers traveled 7,000 miles from their home to Washington state to testify in Bales' courts martial. The Afghans were also critical of the American expedition in Afghanistan, saying the soldiers who came to build a country did no such thing. The military members deliberated less than two hours before handing down the more severe sentence. Prosecutors described Bales as man who had "no moral compass", who wiped out several generations without reason, and dared the court to show Bales mercy when he had shown none. The sergeant did not explain the motives behind his night moves, testifying only that he was hiding behind a mask of "fear and bullshit". Evidence showed he had been using drugs and alcohol at the time of the massacre. As expected, his defense attorney argued that consideration should be given to the sergeant's prior good service, enduring four combat deployments, and his own family of two children. Bales may have the ironic distinction of joining leaker Bradley (Chelsea?) Manning and mass murderer Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan at Ft. Leavenworth, the military's only high security prison, as casualties of war.