World waits to see if Hasan will make a statement

An Army official briefs the world's media 

Ft. Hood – The world is waiting to see if Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan will make a statement before he is sentenced for the massacre he carried out on Nov. 5, 2009, against fellow soldiers. A jury of senior officers found him guilty of all specifications of the murder of 13 and the attempted murder  32.

The right of allocution, the opportunity to offer mitigating or extenuating evidence, is granted by the Rules of Courts Martial.

In Hasan's case, he is facing a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole, but members of the jury could impose a death sentence by their unanimous vote.

In the sentencing phase of the trial, he declined to allow his standby counsel to enter mitigating evidence on his behalf. 

The judge ruled that he is “the captain of his own ship” in granting his wish. He has acted as his own counsel throughout the month-long trial, though his defense counsel have been standing by in case he changed his mind.