A national organization aimed at protecting religious freedom wants a 14th murder charge filed in the Fort Hood massacre because one of the victims was three months pregnant.
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan faces 13 counts of murder in a military court for the Fort Hood massacre that also left 30 people wounded. In a letter last week to the Office of Staff Judge Advocate at Fort Hood, the Alliance Defense Fund asked for the murder charge to be filed for the unborn child of Private Francheska Velez.
“All murder victims – born and pre-born – deserve equal justice,” ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden said in a news release. “Women who volunteer to protect our country deserve to know that the government will enforce the laws that protect their children.”
In the letter, the ADF said: “Private Velez was three months pregnant and was excited about being a new mother. She was scheduled to begin maternity leave next month. She was filling out paperwork relating to her pregnancy when she and her child were killed. ... It would cause a severe and negative impact on morale if Army women were made to believe that the Army valued their children less than they did adult victims of crime.”
The ADF said Article 119a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it a crime to kill “a child, who is in utero” at the time of the crime.
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