Hasan Lawyer: Trial Will Be an Eye-Opener
A civilian attorney for the accused Ft. Hood shooter said he believes the court-martial process facing his client will be "an eye-opener" for many Americans who don't understand military justice process.
Retired Col. John P. Galligan, defense attorney for Major Nidal Hasan, said yesterday he did not believe Hasan, who is to be tried in a military court, can .
When asked this morning on CBS' "The Early Show" why not, Galligan replied, "Well, I don't know if I said that he can't get a fair - I think that would be difficult to achieve at Ft. Hood given the national media attention that's been focused on the Ft. Hood community."
He also said the publicity surrounding today's memorial service at Ft. Hood, which will be attended by the President of the United States, adds to the difficulty. "Any time you've got a high profile case, as this one is, concerns about a fair and impartial jury and where that can be found is going to be present in any defense counsel's mind," Galligan told "Early Show" anchor Harry Smith, "and it should be present in the mind of even the prosecution, because we all want to ensure that a fair and just trial occurs."
Galligan met with Hasan at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio yesterday, where he is recovering from being shot by a law enforcement officer, and said his client is coherent.
"I met with him for about 30 minutes after I received assurances from the attending medical staff that it wouldn't interfere with his medical condition."
CBSNews.com Special Report: Tragedy at Fort Hood
When asked if his client knows what he is alleged to have done, Galligan said, "I haven't even seen a formal charge sheet. Obviously he's aware that he's a suspect in the incident that occurred at Ft. Hood, but there are no formal charges that I could discuss with him. I haven't even been in receipt of the formal charge sheet yet."
Galligan also refused to comment on recent reports that Hasan had shared communications with a radical Muslim cleric, which had been known by investigators previously.
While those communications appeared to be benign, following Thursday's shooting rampage, Anwar al Awlaki - an American-born cleric who now lives in Yemen - praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site, anwar-alawlaki.com (which is currently down):
"He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people," the imam's blog read.
The fact that Hasan is to be tried in a military court suggests that investigators do not believe he is party of a larger conspiracy. When asked if he believed Hasan acted on his own, Galligan said, "I'm not going get into any of the details of the specific charges. I've heard on national media some of the statements that you've just made, but until I see actual evidence and proof - many times, in cases like this, there's a lot of misinformation that's put out, factual statements that are made that are later demonstrated to be not true.
"We're early on in the pretrial stage of the court-martial process, and I think it will be an eye-opener for many Americans who don't understand military justice process. The pretrial discovery is still down the road. As I said, we don't even have a formal charge sheet right now."
"My main purpose in meeting with Major Hasan yesterday was to at least formally introduce myself to him, and I was accompanied by his military defense counsel, Major Christopher Martin." [As a military service member Hasan has the right to military counsel under the under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).]
"Is it possible the government failed to diffuse a ticking time bomb, and might that end up being part of your defense?" asked Smith.
"Again, I think it's premature to really make any statements about that," Galligan said. "My understanding is that the investigation is still active and ongoing with CID and maybe with the FBI. One thing is clear: Before we have a trial, all of that information will be shared with the defense and we'll be able to carefully evaluate it and weigh it in terms of the charges that we ultimately see and any defenses that it might give rise to."
Col. Galligan served in the Army for 30 years and retired in 2001 as a military judge at Ft. Hood. He has handled high profile cases, including the case of Willie Brand, a guard at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan (which was profiled on in 2006), and was interviewed in the documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side."
He said Hasan's family hired him to work with his military counsel because "they want to ensure that he receives as a criminal suspect in the military a fair and impartial hearing, and I think anyone who is touched by the justice criminal process - whether military, civilian or federal or state - wants to ensure the same thing. And what I wanted to assure Major Hasan was that in my role as a civilian counsel, together with the TDS counsel (that's the trial defense service counsel that accompanied me down there), that we were going to ensure that all of his rights under the UCMJ were respected."
More Coverage of the Tragedy at Fort Hood:
FBI Searches for Missed Clues on Hasan
Officials: Fort Hood Shooter Acted Alone
Army Therapists Stretched Too Thin?
Former JAG Officer on Hasan's Good Fortune
Report: U.S. Knew Hasan Sought al Qaeda
Radical Imam's Web Site Praises Hasan
List of Fort Hood Dead, Wounded