Judge bars most motive evidence in Fort Hood trial

[Valin]

AP:

 

8/19/13

 

FORT HOOD, Texas – A military judge blocked several key pieces of evidence Monday that prosecutors said would explain the mindset of the soldier accused in the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, including his belief that he had a “jihad duty” to carry out the attack.

 

Prosecutors asked the judge to approve several witnesses and various evidence to support what they allege motivated Maj. Nidal Hasan to kill 13 people and wound more than 30 others at the Texas military base. But the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, blocked nearly all of it.

 

(Snip)

 

Monday’s ruling frustrated Reed Rubinstein, an attorney representing victims and their relatives in a civil lawsuit against the U.S. government. He said only in an “alternative universe” could the emails excluded by Osborn be irrelevant, and he blamed the government for dragging out Hasan’s case and making the evidence now too old to be considered.

 

(Snip)