It seems that Maj. Nidal Hasan ia willing to plead guilty and describe in detail the events of the day that he is accused of commiting 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 accounts of premeditated attempted murder.  His defense team is reportedly trying to get the judge in the case, Col. Tara Osborn to allow him to plead guilty to lesser charges.  The problem with this situation is that under military law, Osborn could not allow Hasan to plead guilty to a charge that carries the death penalty.  She would have to take death off the table and allow him to plead guilty to the charge with the most severe punishment being life in prison without parole.

If Hasan is allowed to plead guilty, Osborn would have to hold an inquiry where Hasan would be forced to discuss the attack.  If he was to give details not consistent with the chain of events on the day of the shooting she would be able to stop the hearing and not accept the guilty plea.  On an interesting side note, Hasan is not required to apologize or show any remorse, he would just have to give a statement of the events.

The problem with this is that the judge has to be absolutely sure that he is pleading guilty willingly and that this isn't just a trick to get the death penalty off the case.

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