Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people and wounding 31 in a November 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, is pictured in an undated Bell County Sheriff's Office photograph. REUTERS/Bell County Sheriff's Office/Handout Tuesday will mark the beginning of the military trial of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major who gunned down 13 people and injured several dozen more during his 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood.

Hasan, both in court and out of it, has already admitted to being the gunman—he claims to have been trying to protect Taliban leaders from U.S. soldiers deploying to Afghanistan—and has even offered to plead guilty to the charges. But that doesn't mean that the courtroom action will be without its fair share of drama, as the New York Times explains this morning in a great table-setter:

It is not unusual for victims to face their assailants in court, as [Staff Sgt. Alonzo M. Lunsford Jr.] will do on Tuesday, when he testifies on the first day of Major Hasan’s military trial. What is extraordinary is that Major Hasan, seated behind the defense table in a Fort Hood courtroom, may be the one questioning Sergeant Lunsford during cross-examination.

Major Hasan is representing himself, one of many elements of his long-delayed court-martial that legal experts say will make it one of the most unpredictable and significant military trials in recent history. “I will be cross-examined by the man who shot me,” said Sergeant Lunsford, 46, who retired from the Army and remains blind in his left eye. “You can imagine all the emotions that are going to be coming up.”