FORT HOOD, Texas, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Nidal Hasan, convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, massacre, made 21 requests while awaiting court-martial, including a Bible, KXAS-TV, Dallas, reported.
KXAS obtained detailed records showing Hasan, a U.S. Army major, made 21 requests to the Bell County Jail while awaiting trial for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others.
The Dallas-Fort Worth TV station said, because of terms of a U.S. Army contract, Hasan had a medical ward room to himself, as well as a private guard recording Hasan's movements for 12 hours a day.
"I mean, it's just a bunch of overkill. Overreach. Unnecessary funds that were spent," Hasan's civilian attorney, John Galligan, told the television station.
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Galligan said he thinks many of the things the government did for security's sake amounted to an excessive use of taxpayer money, including the nearly $200,000 spent on daily helicopter rides to take Hasan from the jail to Fort Hood.
The Army also spent tens of thousands of dollars on an office for Hasan at Fort Hood where the 42-year-old former military psychiatrist could prepare his own defense.
Records obtained by KXAS indicated $5 million dollars in expenses on items such as travel for government lawyers, expert witness fees, vehicles and cellphones and security renovations at the base.
Galligan said the Army was less willing to spend money on his client's basic needs, with records indicating Hasan made numerous requests for better medical equipment and assistance to help him use the toilet in the jail. Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot by officers responding to the attack.
Many of Hasan's other jail requests focused on his Muslim faith, KXAS said.
In a 2010 request, he requested a clock, noting that he, as a Muslim, needed "to be able to track the time to prayer."
Earlier this year, Hasan asked for a Bible expert and a copy of the Christian holy book "for my personal use."
