Posted on Nov 19, 2014
Army Times
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635518920515869225 akbar
From: Army Times

A former U.S. soldier sentenced to death for killing two fellow soldiers and injuring 14 others in an attack in Kuwait is pinning his hopes of staying alive on an argument jurors should have never seen his diary.

Attorneys for 43-year-old Hasan K. Akbar argued on Tuesday that the one-time sergeant's writings, which include details of how he converted to radical Islam, were so inflammatory, that without the proper context, jurors were most likely to focus on the most damaging parts while considering whether to impose a death sentence.

"They didn't present the information in any meaningful way," said Lt. Col. John Potter, a military lawyer arguing the case for Akbar before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington.

Akbar was with the 326th Engineer Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when he was sentenced to death in 2005. He killed Army Capt. Christopher S. Seifert and Air Force Maj. Gregory L. Stone in Kuwait two years earlier during the early days of the Iraq war.

Prosecutors say he threw four hand grenades into tents as members of his division slept, then fired his rifle at soldiers in the ensuing chaos on March 23, 2003. A military jury at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, convicted Akbar and handed down the sentence. The military has not carried out an execution since 1961. Akbar is one of five ex-soldiers facing a death sentence, the only one for actions in the Iraq war.

Potter told the judges the defense failed to prepare witnesses and errantly let jurors see Akbar's diary, which contained multiple anti-American passages.

Potter said allowing the jury to read the diary "eviscerated the defense in any meaningful way."

"We think the diary, there's no tactical reason to submit the diary," Potter said.

In one entry dated Feb. 23, 2002, Akbar wrote that he believed staying in the Army would eventually lead him to prison.

"I had a premonition that if I re-enlisted I would find myself in jail. That is probably true because I already want to kill several of them," Akbar wrote of his fellow soldiers.

The judges hearing the case focused on how the diary fit into the rest of the defense strategy, asking whether attorneys did anything to put the passages in the context of Akbar's pre-military life or any mental issues he may have had.

Potter noted that the defense put on 38 minutes of mitigation evidence and argument and didn't present any testimony from his family to humanize him. Instead, the lawyers failed by letting jurors pick through the diary and focus on the passages that left their client in the worst possible light.

Prosecutors said Akbar's defense attorneys acted in his best interest to try and prevent a death sentence from being issued in one of the "most egregious offenses in modern military history." The defense attorneys focused on the most viable arguments and witnesses, Maj. Kenneth Borgnino said.

Prosecutors noted that much of Akbar's family likely wouldn't have made a good impression on the witness stand.

The judges did not indicate when a ruling would be issued.

http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/crime/2014/11/19/akbar-appeal-111914/19265341/
Posted in these groups: Death penalty logo Death PenaltyKuwait flag 8 KuwaitUcmj UCMJ
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SGT Suraj Dave
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Fratricide is one of the lowest things a human being is capable of in my opinion

We should should just keep shooting him in the limb's, and let 68w students treat him. Keep doing that, rinse and repeat, until he dies. At least his scummy existence would have provided some Medic AIT students some good live tissue lab training. That training could save a soldiers life in the future, and the end result would be the same anyways. Mr Akbar would be dead.
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Lt Col Aerospace Planner
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Edited 10 y ago
The process to execute a military prisoner is convoluted. First off it requires the POTUS to sign the Death Warrant. The POTUS does not even see the warrant until a lot things happen. First the inmate has to exhaust all appeals at the military level starting with the service's Court of Criminal Appeals, in this case the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Then it moves up to the Appeals Court of the Armed Forces. Once all appeals have been exhausted at the armed forces court a request must be made by the conniving authority to seek the Death Warrant. Then that gets routed to the Service Chief, then to the Under Secretary of the services legal affairs, then to the Secretary of the Service and finally to the POTUS. Where the chain can be broken at any time through the routing before it hits the POTUS. Then of course the POTUS may opt to deny signing it. Then the scumbag has to wait for a pro-DP president to sign it after it goes back to another submission from the beginning. If the POTUS signs it the condemned can now chose to appeal in the civilian circuit courts. Then after that gets exhausted they apply for a writ of cert with the SCOTUS. Then the cycle goes around and around until they finally exhaust all appeals and there is a Pro DP POTUS. Then at that time they may finally be executed.

The whole process takes a long time, decades! In reality they will most likely die of natural causes before that occurs. The only way to speed it up is if the condemned pulls a McVeigh and the POTUS is not against capital punishment. Even they are for it the POTUS's tend to try to stray away from it until their second term. We haven't executed a Federal Prisoner since McVeigh.
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SSgt Forensic Meteorological Consultant
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I am so sick of the games.
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SSG Robert Blair
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- I remember hearing about this while I was in Camp New York. Staged and preparing to go into Iraq. My platoon could not fathom the idea of doing something like that to our own. - One great thing about the infantry....you learn to take down the enemy without remorse. To not lose sleep over it. You come to realize it is just something you must do to preserve innocent lives, protect your own and keep your nation secure.

Akbar is the enemy!
Need I say more?!
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SPC Greg Bancroft
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I agree. He had his day, and this 'man' and Hasan should be executed. AND their execution will be given with more decency and decorum, than how these 'men' murdered their fellow soldiers and civilians.
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SGT Stephen George
SGT Stephen George
10 y
I say burn um at the stake ... .
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PFC Louis Wolff
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Hope the medics botch his IV so the drugs don't fully get into his system and cause intense pain and suffering as they infiltrate in the surrounding tissue
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SFC Michael Dillon
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I'll buy the rope if that helps
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SFC Battalion Motor Sergeant
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We all remember that day. A 5 cent bullet is what he deserves.
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1SG David Niles
1SG David Niles
10 y
Agreed no problem paying for the round
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SGT Kris Larsh
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I was in the company at Fort Hood this guy was in the 326 Engineer B Co. My colonel there at the time was a captain in the 326 when this happened in Kuwait. He told me about the day it happened.
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MSgt Steven Smith
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Hang his ass with a short rope so he dies a slow death.
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PO2 Electronics Technician
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Cut his pecker off and shove it in bergdahls mouth
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