Convicted Fort Hood shooter received positive evaluation before attack

KILLEEN, Texas, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The Army psychiatrist who was convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting was praised by his supervisors months before the incident, documents indicate.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, whose supervisors had repeatedly recommended him for promotion, was convicted Friday of killing 13 and wounding more than 30.

"He has a keen interest in Islamic culture and faith and has shown capacity to contribute to our psychological understanding of Islamic nationalism," supervisors wrote in an evaluation report July 1, 2009.

His supervisors said that Hasan, 42, had great potential as an Army officer and that he was skilled in traumatic stress spectrum psychiatric disorders, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Another evaluation report, from earlier in 2009, stated that Hasan had outstanding moral integrity.

Hasan's civil lawyer, John Galligan, said the evaluation reports should play a role in the sentencing.

Galligan provided the reports to the Times, but Hasan, who has been representing himself, has not submitted them as evidence.

The same panel of 13 officers who convicted Hasan will determine his sentence, the Times said.

For a death sentence, the jury's decision must be unanimous.