Convicted Fort Hood killer faces military hearing in Kansas

(Reuters) - Former U.S. Army major Nidal Hasan appeared in a military court on Thursday for a procedural hearing related to his capital punishment conviction for the 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others. The hearing at a military post in Kansas addressed two administrative matters. The first was to inform Hasan of the status of the record of the trial and the second concerned a change in status for a trial defense attorney, the U.S. Army said. Hasan, 44, is being confined in the death sentence inmate housing unit at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where the hearing took place. He was sent to a military prison on the post after being sentenced to death for the killings. His death sentence is subject to an automatic appeal. Hasan, an American-born Muslim, opened fire at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009, targeting unarmed soldiers preparing for deployment in an attack he later called retaliation for U.S. wars in the Muslim world. He shouted "Allahu Akbar," which means "God is greatest" in Arabic, during the shooting and later said he wanted to be a martyr. There has not been a U.S. military execution since 1961, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors the use of capital punishment in the United States. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas and Lisa Maria Garza in Dallas; Editing by Susan Heavey and Eric Walsh)