Gruesome videos nixed for terror trial jurors
Jurors who will decide the fate of an Everett man charged in a 2015 plot to behead a conservative blogger will not be forced to see the gruesome videos the defendant apparently watched, according to a federal judge.
“We’re not playing any videos of violence to other humans in open court. In my mind, that’s a form of obscenity,” said U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young during a hearing yesterday. “It’s comparable to child pornography, and we’re not going to sit here — voyeur-like — and watch that.”
Jury empanelment in the case of David Wright is slated to begin on Sept. 18, according to Young. Prosecutors say Wright plotted with Rhode Island resident Nicholas Rovinski and another man to kill blogger Pamela Geller in an ISIS-inspired hit. The plot was never carried out, and Rovinski pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges last year.
Wright’s defense team and federal prosecutors huddled yesterday to work out last-minute motions. Young found that some of the videos Wright watched and the magazines he read were not going to be blown up in open court for the jury to see, but they can be entered into evidence.
Young said federal prosecutors can have a witness testify as to what the videos and magazines, which were found in Wright’s possession, mean. However, he said he wants to instruct jurors as to how they can consider the evidence.
For example, Young said, jurors can look at the videos and magazines to determine what Wright was thinking about during the time leading up to the alleged terrorism conspiracy. However, jurors cannot consider the evidence when deciding what he was thinking. To parse the confusing dichotomy, Young gave a close-tohome example.
“I am a Civil War buff, and I have various books regarding the Civil War. Among them are books relating to various Confederate generals,” he said. “Now, that says nothing about what I think about their conduct, but it does say I am interested in the Civil War.”
Wright is charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and obstruction of justice. His uncle, Usaamah Rahim, 26, was shot dead in Roslindale in 2015 while brandishing a 13-inch knife at police and federal agents.