Fort Hood Shooting Suspect, Nidal Hasan, Wants To Fire Lawyers, Represent Himself

The Fort Hood shooter trial, involving suspect Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army Psychiatrist, is scheduled to begin in a matter of weeks. However Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others on the US Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 will likely seek permission to fire his lawyer, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, so he may represent himself at trial.

The judge in the case, Col. Tara Osborn, is expected to hear Hasan's request at a hearing Wednesday. Legal experts suggested that Osborn has "little choice" in the matter and will likely grant Hasan's request for self-representation.

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Citing the fact that, should Hasan represent himself, he would be the individual questioning witnesses and performing other court duties normally reserved for legal representation, Lt. Col. Geoffrey Corn (Ret.), an Army prosecutor told the Chicago Tribune that "it is hard for the victim...to come into a courtroom and sit across the room from a man who they are convinced did this," Corn said.

Following the alleged shooting, which the Obama administration stopped short of labeling a terrorist attack, Hasan was shot by responding officers and is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down. However, the Department of Defense responded to an inquiry regarding Nidal Malik Hasan's payroll status in the United States Military. Washington confirmed that Hasan has received $278,000 in salary payments since his 2009 arrest.

A recent letter by a bipartisan group of Congressmen including Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., and Tom Rooney, R-Fla., directed at Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel decried the DoD's label of the alleged shooting as "workplace violence" and not domestic terrorism.

"[The designation] has since resulted in an embarrassing lack of care and treatment by our military for the victims and their families," the letter said.

Hasan's actual trial is scheduled to begin July 1.