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| Local Time: 8:13 AM September 9, 2010 |
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| Local Time: 8:13 AM September 9, 2010 |
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“The Fourteenth Victim” Sunday, November 15, 2009
Army prosecutors announced today that the accused Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, will face 13 counts of premeditated murder for the shooting rampage that also left dozens of others wounded. Sadly, the 14th victim of this tragedy has so far been overlooked. The Alliance Defense Fund and others have urged the Army to uphold the law by charging Hasan with the killing of all 14 of the dead victims, including the pre-born child of Private Francheska Velez. According to press accounts, Private Velez had just returned to America from Iraq days before the shooting. Three months pregnant and scheduled to begin maternity leave next month, Private Velez was excited about her new status as a mother. According to a relative. “She was getting ready to buy baby clothes and start her brand new life.” Reportedly, she already knew that the baby was a boy. Private Velez was filling out Army paperwork relating to her pregnancy when she and her child were gunned down. The Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it a crime for anyone to “cause the death of a child who is in utero” while causing the death of the child’s mother. The code doesn’t require prosecutors to prove that Hasan killed Private Velez because she was pregnant—or even that he knew she was. The military’s criminal provision is based upon the civilian Unborn Victims of Violence Act, or “Laci and Conner’s Law,” passed by Congress in 2005 amid overwhelming support by Americans for the view that crimes such as those against Laci Peterson and her child have two victims, not just one. (Thirty-five states also recognize the unlawful killing of a pre-born child as homicide in some circumstances, including Texas, where Fort Hood is located.) As President Bush signed the act into law, he remarked, “As these and the other families understand, any time an expectant mother is a victim of violence, two lives are in the balance, each deserving protection, and each deserving justice. If the crime is murder and the unborn child's life ends, justice demands a full accounting under the law.” There is ample precedent for charging Hasan with the murder of Private Velez’s baby boy under federal law. An Elmendorf Air Force Base (Alaska) enlisted man, Scott Boie, was convicted under the law this year and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for attempted murder of his pre-born child. And federal prosecutors in New Mexico recently charged Frederick Beach with two counts of premeditated murder under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act for allegedly beating his girlfriend, Verlinda Kinsel, and her pre-born baby to death with a baseball bat. The Army says it has not yet determined whether they will charge Hasan for the death of his 14th victim, and additional charges relating to the woundings of other soldiers are anticipated. Here’s hoping and praying that the Army will uphold the rule of law and prosecute Hasan to the fullest measure available to it. Wouldn’t the morale of dedicated women in the Army suffer if they were made to believe that the Army valued their children less than they did adult victims of crime? Women who volunteer to protect our country deserve to know that the government will enforce the laws that protect their children. All murder victims – born and pre-born – deserve equal justice. Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden directs sanctity of life litigation from the Washington, D.C., office of the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance employing a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family. An honors graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Aden is the author of numerous law review articles and periodical publications on constitutional law and civil rights topics.
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