By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. prosecutor on Tuesday urged a New York jury to sentence the man who killed eight people in a 2017 attack on a Manhattan bike path to death, arguing his allegiance to Islamic State and his victims’ pain meant he deserved the “highest punishment.”
The jury in January found Sayfullo Saipov, 35, guilty of committing murder with the goal of joining Islamic State, also known as ISIS, when he drove a rented U-Haul truck into the path alongside the Hudson River on Halloween over five years ago. The United States considers Islamic State a terrorist organization.
The trial marks the first time jurors have been asked to vote for the federal death penalty since U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in January 2021 after campaigning on a pledge to abolish the punishment. Alternatively, the jury could sentence Saipov to life in prison.
In her closing argument in the trial’s death penalty phase, prosecutor Amanda Houle called Saipov a “proud terrorist.” While acknowledging the magnitude of the jury’s choice, she said it was Saipov’s actions that brought them to this point.
“When ISIS called upon him to fight overseas or attack here, he chose here, this city,” Houle said. “He chose to ruin so many lives, lives he still does not value. And he chose it all for the fame of being a soldier of the caliphate for ISIS.”
She later displayed photographs of the victims’ lifeless, bloodied bodies. She said that while murder is “always horrific,” the death penalty was warranted for Saipov in part because he planned the attack and caused multiple deaths.
“You as a jury together will render justice in this case,” Houle said. “We know that can feel difficult, but the law provides a process to help you.”
Saipov’s defense lawyers were expected to make their closing argument after Houle finishes. They have previously called the death penalty barbaric, and emphasized that should he receive a life sentence, he would be sent to a Supermax prison in Colorado.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
