Fort Hood Murder Case: Debate over 13 or 14 Counts of Murder

[rambone]

One of the victims of the Fort Hood Massacre was a pregnant mother.

There is a debate over charging Hasan with murder for the unborn baby.

Calls for 14th Murder Count in Fort Hood Case

Nancy Montgomery, Stars & Stripes

The already high-profile military trial of Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan could become yet more complex and politically charged if he faces a 14th murder count.

Two US senators and an anti-abortion group have urged that Hasan be charged with the murder of a fetus that died along with its mother in the shootings at Fort Hood this month, a young woman just back from Iraq and six weeks pregnant: Pvt. Francheska Velez.

"Both federal law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice allow for a murder charge when a person causes the death of an unborn child," Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), told the Idaho State Journal. "It is important for this child to have justice and for recognition that this family suffered two deaths in this senseless rampage."

Whether Hasan will be charged with the fetal death is unknown.

"All evidence from the investigation is currently under review and no decision has been made regarding the preferral of additional charges at this time," Fort Hood officials said in a statement.

But the Army has never successfully prosecuted such a case.

Only one other death of an unborn child case has ever been filed, in 2007, and those charges were dismissed, according to the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Air Force is thought to have had the first successful such prosecution. In May, an airman was convicted of attempting to kill an unborn child in a case in which the airman poisoned his wife to force a miscarriage. He had been charged, though, with killing an unborn child.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice added the crime in connection with a 2004 federal law that for the first time made it a separate offense to harm the fetus in a federal crime committed against a pregnant woman.

The controversial federal law, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, amended the UCMJ by adding Article 119a. The article makes killing or injuring a fetus a separate crime in addition to the murder, manslaughter, robbery, maiming, arson or assault of the mother.

In two widely publicized cases involving troops accused of murdering pregnant women, neither defendant has been charged with fetal homicide, even though both victims, also military members, were in their third trimesters.

 

[D-Ric902]

Scott Peterson was charged with two counts of murder. For his pregnant wife Lacy and the unborn child.

 

[jblomenberg16]

This will be interesting to watch. While not directly appicable, it is undeniabley relevant to the constant battle over the definition of life in the ongoing abortion debate. Is an unborn child a "life" or not?

I say yes, but I'm pro-life. Some say no that are pro-choice, and some compromise and say it is a life after a certain number of weeks gestation.

It will be very interesting what the prosecutor and those involved in the legal procedings us to establish a precedent to determine the definition of life in this case.

 

[Bigum1969]

The terrorist did eliminate what either was a life, or would be a life (depending on your views) with the unborn child. Therefore, it should be 14 counts.

 

[mskendall]

I would say 14 but then there's a big debate. Hit 'em with 13 and fry the sob!