A man inspired by ISIS who drove a truck down a crowded New York City bike path — killing eight people — avoided the death penalty after a jury failed to agree on whether he should be executed for the 2017 terror attack.
(Bloomberg) — A man inspired by ISIS who drove a truck down a crowded New York City bike path — killing eight people — avoided the death penalty after a jury failed to agree on whether he should be executed for the 2017 terror attack.
The Manhattan federal jury deliberated for about nine hours over two days in the punishment phase of the case against Sayfullo Saipov, but said Monday it was unable to reach a unanimous decision. He was convicted in January of murder and other charges, including providing material support to a terrorist group.
The “horrendous terrorist attack” on Oct. 31, 2017, was “fueled by Saipov’s allegiance to ISIS, an allegiance which Saipov proudly maintained after the attack and up through his trial,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Today a jury has declined to authorize the death penalty for Saipov, and accordingly the defendant will be subject to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”
While the 12 jurors agreed the government proved all of the statutory aggravating and preliminary intent factors in considering the death penalty, they were split on whether Saipov was likely to commit criminal acts of violence in prison. They also agreed on almost all of the 27 mitigating factors, including that he’d been influenced by ISIS propaganda and that life in prison was a harsh punishment.
During the sentencing phase, jurors heard testimony from surviving victims and relatives of those killed on the West Side Highway bike path on Halloween in 2017. Prosecutors had urged jurors to impose the death penalty, saying Saipov is too dangerous for prison.
“In our system of justice, the highest punishment is reserved for those who commit the most heinous crimes,” US prosecutor Amanda Leigh Houle said in her closing statement, adding that sentencing Saipov to death would hold him accountable for his actions.
Arguing for Life
Saipov’s lawyers had argued for a life sentence with no parole, saying he had been manipulated by ISIS propaganda and that he’d pose little risk to anyone while being held in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
“Meeting death with more death is not the answer,” defense attorney David Patton said in his closing statement.
Testimony by victims and family members during the three-week punishment phase was heartbreaking. Several of those injured by the truck were tourists, and some returned home without family members or friends who were killed. The victims were instructed by the judge not to offer any opinion on Saipov or the jury’s verdict.
“I wish I could have been [riding] in the back,” Lieve Wyseur, the mother of one of the deceased victims, Ann-Laure Decadt, told the jury. “I should have been the one who died.”
Defense lawyers filed a motion for a mistrial on Feb. 17, alleging that the emotional testimony by victims contained improper “appeals to jurors’ sympathy” and “characterizations of Mr. Saipov and the truck attack” and was a “quintessential appeal to passion and emotion.”
Read More: Victims Testify in NYC Bike-Path Killer Case: ‘Life Was Stolen’
The government also called on correctional officers to testify about Saipov’s behavior in jail to convince jurors he is still dangerous. According to a court filing by the Department of Justice in 2020, Saipov threatened to decapitate one officer.
The defense called on members of Saipov’s family in an attempt to humanize him for the jury. Saipov’s father testified that the attack had “destroyed” his soul and that his son’s childhood, when he was a “joyful” kid, could not have predicted his later crimes.
“There is nothing that can justify this,” his father, Habibulloh Saipov, said.
The jury also heard from an attorney for the Bureau of Prisons about the safety of Colorado’s maximum security prison, ADX Florence, where Saipov would serve a life sentence, as well as an expert on ISIS propaganda to discuss why Saipov was targeted.
Saipov himself opted not to testify in the case.
Noah Tucker, an expert on ISIS propaganda, told the jury that terrorist groups specifically target migrants like Saipov, who came to the US from Uzbekistan, with messaging that promotes martyrdom as a way to give life meaning. The targeting primarily happens through social media like YouTube where they can find terrorist content, Tucker said.
YouTube and owner Google are currently embroiled in a lawsuit brought by the family of a victim of a separate terrorist attack that alleges they haven’t done enough to remove Islamic State videos. Arguments were heard by the Supreme Court in late February.
Read More: Supreme Court Holds Option to Sidestep Social Media Shield Issue
“They’re instructed not to talk to family members and not to trust yourself or people around you if you have doubt,” Tucker said of the martyrdom messaging. “It’s a sign of the way ISIS has no respect for human life in general and regards lives as disposable.”
‘History of Arbitrariness’
Kathryn Miller, associate professor of law at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School and a defense litigator, said it wasn’t clear why Saipov’s case in New York would qualify for a death sentence, especially with criminals who killed even more people in other states got life sentences.
For example, Patrick Crusius, who pleaded guilty to killing 23 people and injuring 22 at a Texas Walmart in 2019, was spared the death penalty, Miller said.
“The history of the death penalty is a history of arbitrariness,” she said. The process of “death qualification” bars jurors who are opposed to the death penalty from serving on capital punishment juries, which she said can result in a skewed and biased jury.
In Houle’s closing statement, she told the jury that Saipov’s actions met the aggravating criteria required for imposing the death penalty.
“Because he chose to murder eight people and tried to murder 18 more, he is worthy of the highest punishment,” she said.
The case is USA v. Saipov, 17-cr-00722, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with statement from US attorney, area of disagreement by jurors.)
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