As the Pentagon announced contentious plans to publicly execute Nidal Hasan, convicted of murdering 13 people and injuring dozens more at Fort Hood in 2009, experts weighed in to give context to the events and offer predictions for how the legal proceedings will unfold. In interviews with Fox 4 Dallas News Live and CBS News, CERL Advisory Council Member Geoffrey Corn described the general court-martial trial leading up to the 2013 verdict, noting that it was a rigorous process and that the extreme sentence is paramount with the crimes committed and Hasan’s lack of remorse. However, Professor Corn also explains that the decision to livestream the execution raises moral questions, and predicts that despite the plan for it to proceed on December 3, remaining legal hurdles may mean that the execution will not actually take place within this presidential term.

Geoffrey S. Corn is the George R. Killam, Jr. Chair of Criminal Law and Director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University School of Law. A retired U.S. Army Judge Advocate Officer, he served as the Army’s senior law of war advisor. He is also a member of the CERL Advisory Council. Read his bio here.   

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