No loss of life penalty for NYC terrorist Sayfullo Saipov in West Side Highway assault

West Side Highway terrorist Sayfullo Saipov will serve life in jail after a Manhattan federal courtroom jury couldn’t unanimously adjust to sentence him to loss of life for killing eight people and wounding a quantity of others in an ISIS-inspired rampage.

The jury’s failure to realize a unanimous verdict — important to impose the loss of life penalty — on Monday ended a dramatic, monthslong trial that seen surviving victims tearfully testify regarding the horror of his assault and the killer’s members of the household urge jurors to spare his life. 

Saipov was convicted in January of fatally mowing down eight people alongside a West Side Highway bike path on Halloween 2017 in a rented Home Depot truck.

During the penalty half of the trial, prosecutors questioned a quantity of witnesses – along with surviving victims and members of the household of these slain – to level out jurors the horrific violence carried out by Saipov.

Assistant US Attorney Alexander Li knowledgeable jurors all through the guilt half of the trial that Saipov smiled, gave a “proud confession” and requested an ISIS flag to carry in a hospital room the place he was being dealt with after the assault. 

The prosecutor then described the horror on the Lower Manhattan bike path that left eight people ineffective on the afternoon of Oct. 31, 2017. 

“It was a scene of destruction and horror. Mangled bicycles covered the path. The riders — human beings — lay unconscious or dead. Survivors staggered around, wounded and dazed, searching for family and friends,” Li talked about in his opening assertion. 

“Screams filled the air,” he added.  

The jury convicted Saipov on 28 counts — 9 of which carried the chance of the loss of life penalty — hours after they began deliberations on Jan. 26.

The conviction triggered the penalty half of the case – which functioned like one different full trial, the place prosecutors and safety attorneys questioned witnesses, launched proof and delivered opening and shutting arguments. 

During the penalty half, members of the household of these killed described in painstaking aspect how they’ve been devastated by the shortage of their relations. 

The emotional testimony was referenced in prosecutors’ dramatic closing argument on March 7 as they urged jurors to condemn Saipov.

“The defendant caused unbearable pain to these families. They are still suffering,” Assistant US Attorney Amanda Houle knowledgeable jurors in her closing. 

“Has the government proven aggravating factors that show that the way that this defendant chose to commit murder, by terrorist attack and the unremorseful slaughter of innocent civilians. Does that make his crime worthy of a harsher penalty?” Houle requested jurors.  

“The evidence shows overwhelmingly that it does,” she talked about.

Houle then described the testimony jurors had heard about how households of the slain victims had been upended by the terrorist assault.

Victim Nicholas Cleves’ mother, Monica, knowledgeable the panel she couldn’t put her grief into phrases, Houle talked about.

“Monica said there are no words in the human language that can adequately describe the excruciating pain that ‘seared, that consumed me and has never left me since.’ She said all of the enjoyment and connection with life she used to have has been stripped away,” the prosecutor talked about.

“Maria Alejandra told you how Amber and Mora have struggled since their father’s murder,” Houle talked about of one different family devastated by the shortage of a appreciated one.

“How they feel his absence constantly, how Amber was hospitalized on Father’s Day after having chest pains in the middle of the night, how the girls couldn’t sleep alone for years, and how they miss kissing him at night, so they kiss his urn of ashes instead,” she talked about.

Saipov’s safety attorneys had sought to humanize him by questioning his members of the household on the stand, most all of whom broke down in tears as soon as they knowledgeable the jury they nonetheless appreciated him — regardless of what he had completed.

The safety’s penatly-phase case reached a dramatic peak when his father, sobbing uncontrollably, knowledgeable jurors he nonetheless appreciated his son “with all my heart” from the witness stand.

The testimony prompted Saipov’s uncle, who was seated throughout the gallery of the courtroom, to face up and begin shouting in Uzbek.

“Dirty ISIS bastards!” the particular person yelled in Uzbek sooner than slamming his fist on a courtroom door and strolling out of the room.

In an impassioned closing argument, Saipov authorized skilled David Patton repeatedly knowledgeable jurors they face a “unique, individualized, moral decision” in whether or not or not or to not sentence the terrorist to loss of life.

“That is an awesome responsibility and power, and we are asking you to decide for life, to decide that the appropriate moral decision here is life,” Patton talked about.

“It is not necessary to kill Sayfullo Saipov, not for our safety or anyone else’s and not to do justice,” Patton talked about.