Excerpt:
Army records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates details how the U.S. government spent nearly $5 million to convict Nidal Hasan in the Fort Hood massacre -- crimes for which he wanted to plead guilty.
After several months of filing requests, NBC 5 Investigates received the first detailed accounting of the costs related to the court martial and trial for the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 and injuring 32 in a mass shooting in 2009. The total bill to U.S. taxpayers was more than $4.7 million.
Hasan, who called no witnesses in his defense and asked only a few questions during the trial, wanted to plead guilty to the charges against him but was forbidden to do so by military law, so a trial had to be held.