Yesterday, the U.S. Army formally charged Nidal Malik Hasan with murdering thirteen people at Fort Hood. While I have no inside information, I’m sure Hasan’s lawyers are considering invoking an insanity defense. A plea deal seems highly unlikely in this case short of Hasan having information on others that may have been involved. Despite the difficulty in prevailing with such a defense what other rational defense could Hasan’s lawyers put on? It’s the defense that a now convicted Islamic radical tried to use back in 2005 when former U.S. Army sergeant Hasan Karim Akbar was convicted of killing two soldiers and wounding 14 others on a U.S. base in Kuwait in 2003. While it is impossible to get a complete picture of Hasan’s mental state at this time, it is worth noting his actions alone do not make him insane.
In the case of Hasan, and other radical Islamists, we must be careful not to confuse insanity with fanaticism. Hasan’s fanatical and radical beliefs may have come off as psychotic or “nuts” to most people, perhaps even at first glance to his medical colleagues in the Army. However, this does not automatically mean that Hasan didn’t know that murder is against the law and that he would be punished for it (assuming he intended to survive his attack).
Intentionally flying an airplane full of people at several hundred miles an hour into a building would clearly seem “crazy” to most of us. For those who cannot or do not want to understand it, they seek to classify it as insane. But doing so removes responsibility from those who commit such atrocities since the basic underpinning of an insanity defense is that the accused is not responsible because they suffer from a mental disease or defect and cannot understand right from wrong.
As for Hasan, he may well be mentally imbalanced but he nonetheless could have known full well what he was doing and why. His alleged fanatical religious views may have simply caused him to believe that he is a Muslim first and an American second and that Islamic law was of a higher authority that compelled him to kill the enemy infidels of the U.S. military and to accept his own likely death in the process. Remember, as Hasan himself allegedly said to his fellow Army doctors, radical Islamists love death more than we love life. Is this fanatical? Yes. Is it legally insane? Not necessarily. Otherwise, virtually all radical Islamists are legally insane, which means we cannot hold any of them accountable for their actions. Now that would truly be insanity.
In the case of Hasan, and other radical Islamists, we must be careful not to confuse insanity with fanaticism. Hasan’s fanatical and radical beliefs may have come off as psychotic or “nuts” to most people, perhaps even at first glance to his medical colleagues in the Army. However, this does not automatically mean that Hasan didn’t know that murder is against the law and that he would be punished for it (assuming he intended to survive his attack).
Intentionally flying an airplane full of people at several hundred miles an hour into a building would clearly seem “crazy” to most of us. For those who cannot or do not want to understand it, they seek to classify it as insane. But doing so removes responsibility from those who commit such atrocities since the basic underpinning of an insanity defense is that the accused is not responsible because they suffer from a mental disease or defect and cannot understand right from wrong.
As for Hasan, he may well be mentally imbalanced but he nonetheless could have known full well what he was doing and why. His alleged fanatical religious views may have simply caused him to believe that he is a Muslim first and an American second and that Islamic law was of a higher authority that compelled him to kill the enemy infidels of the U.S. military and to accept his own likely death in the process. Remember, as Hasan himself allegedly said to his fellow Army doctors, radical Islamists love death more than we love life. Is this fanatical? Yes. Is it legally insane? Not necessarily. Otherwise, virtually all radical Islamists are legally insane, which means we cannot hold any of them accountable for their actions. Now that would truly be insanity.
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