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If the judge allowed Hasan to plead guilty, his conviction and sentence could be overturned on appeal and we’d be right back where we started. He has to be found guilty by a finder of fact, and to do that there has to be a trial, witnesses, and evidence.
On what basis would an appeal be warranted? He admits he killed the victims, the witnesses agree it was him, and the victims are still dead. Bizarre and stupid…I actually believe that this farce/trial will go on for years.:smack:
On the basis that his conviction was invalid and illegal because you can’t plead guilty to a death penalty offense in courts martial. You note that the witnesses agree it was him, but if he were allowed to illegally plead guilty there would be no admissible witness testimony on the record with regard to guilt/innocence to prove him guilty. The trial would have to start over from scratch because the court didn’t follow the law. As it stands, the trial will go on for several weeks, but no way can it go on for years. The appeals will, though, but that’s par for the course for a death penalty case.
I suspect I am unlikely to do so. 
If you can’t envision talking out of both sides of your mouth at the same time, clearly you have no future in politics.
Congratulations.
(No, it’s not a gratuitous political jab. It’s a statement of opinion that politicians, in general, are pretty flexible about labeling things according to the needs of the moment. It’s terrorism when waxing eloquent in front of cameras. It’s not when such a declaration would cost the government more money, or raises the risk that the alleged perpetrator might gain some kind of martyrdom if identified as anything but a common murderer.)