Everett man to be sentenced for role in plot to behead cops
‘As his mother, I assure you David has extreme remorse.’ — SHAHIDAH J. MUHAMMAD, mother of David Daoud Wright
When the feds push life in prison for convicted terrorist David Daoud Wright tomorrow, the ISIS sympathizer’s public defenders want a corrections officer who guarded him in lockup for the past 2 1⁄2 years to take his side in the sentencing hearing.
The attorneys are asking U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young to hear testimony from the supervising officer of Wright’s unit at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility who they say will “discuss Mr. Wright’s absence of a disciplinary record and highly respectful manner in which he comported himself relative to corrections staff at all times ...”
Young has not yet ruled on the request. He is scheduled to sentence the 28-year-old Everett man at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Wright’s lawyers are seeking 16 years in prison with supervised release for life, insisting that since his 2015 arrest for plotting to behead police officers in the name of ISIS, the “flawed, isolated, immature man ... has gained insight into why he engaged in speech and espoused beliefs that are so contrary to the man he was raised to be.”
Though Wright’s terrorism plot was foiled before any police officers were harmed, prosecutors will ask Young to punish Wright with life, arguing, “he became a soldier of ISIS who disavowed his own country.” They are urging Young to “send a clear and unequivocal message” to others who would follow his example.
Wright’s mother, Shahidah J. Muhammad, has already submitted a letter to the court. She told Young her son grew up fascinated by dinosaurs, once aspired to be a heart surgeon, and would listen to classical music as he cleaned his room.
“This disgusting group called ISIS is shameful and an embarrassment to true believers of Islam,” she wrote. “As his mother, I assure you David has extreme remorse. He acknowledges his words were disgusting and devastating.”
Wright was convicted in October of conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism and obstruction of justice.
He was captured immediately after his uncle, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 26, was shot and killed in a Roslindale parking lot on June 2, 2015, while brandishing a 13-inch fighting knife at police and federal agents. Rahim had just told his nephew on the phone it was time to go after the “boys in blue.”