Hayat’s lawyers ask judge to free inmate from Lodi

SACRAMENTO — Four days after a federal judge vacated the conviction and sentence of Lodi terror suspect Hamid Hayat, his attorneys filed a motion Friday seeking Hayat’s immediate release from an Arizona prison and asking that he be allowed to return home.

“Defendant Hayat has been in custody in this matter since June 2005 — i.e., a period of more than 14 years — for convictions that this court has now vacated,” San Francisco attorney Dennis Riordan wrote in a motion filed in federal court in Sacramento. “The court’s July 30 order essentially found that Hayat’s trial counsel failed to investigate and present critical evidence of her client’s innocence to the jury at defendant’s trial in 2006, and that such failure fundamentally under mines confidence in the resulting verdict.”

Despite the order by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. on Tuesday, Hayat remains in custody at a federal prison outside Phoenix, and his attorneys say he should be returned home on his own recognizance while the Justice Department decides whether to appeal the decision.

Hayat already has served 14 years of a 24year sentence, and Riordan noted that before trial he was offered a plea deal that would have kept him in custody for a maximum of 15 years. With credit for good behavior under that deal, Hayat would have gone home 18 months ago, Riordan noted.

Riordan wrote that it is “extraordinarily unlikely the government will prevail on appeal” if it pursues that route, and said Hayat poses no risk of flight from his family in the Lodi and Stockton areas.

He also noted that Hayat had no previous criminal record and that he has maintained all along that he never conspired to commit any acts of terror.

Riordan also submitted a letter from Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, saying community members are eager for Hayat’s return and are willing to offer his “suitable employment” upon his release and to provide him with mental health counseling.

The government has not yet said whether it will appeal the judge’s decision, and the matter now rests with the Justice Department in Washington.

Riordan wants a hearing before Burrell, the original trial judge, seeking an order “granting his immediate release from custody.”