Fiend dodges death
Bike-path terrorist gets life sentence
West Side Highway terrorist Sayfullo Saipov will serve life in prison because a Manhattan federal jury could not unanimously agree to sentence him to death for killing eight people and wounding several others in an ISIS-inspired rampage.
The jury’s failure to reach a unanimous verdict — necessary to impose the death penalty — on Monday ended a dramatic, monthslong trial that saw survivors tearfully testify about the horror of his attack and the killer’s relatives urge jurors to spare his life.
Saipov was convicted in January of mowing down eight people along a West Side Highway bike path on Halloween 2017 in a rented Home Depot truck.
During the penalty phase of the trial, prosecutors questioned a host of witnesses, including surviving victims and relatives of those slain, to show jurors the violence carried out by Saipov.
Assistant US Attorney Alexander Li told jurors during the guilt phase of the trial that Saipov smiled, gave a “proud confession” and requested an ISIS flag to hang in a hospital room where he was being treated after the attack.
The prosecutor then described the horror that left eight people dead.
“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 said in his opening statement. “Screams filled the air.”
The jury convicted Saipov on 28 counts, nine of which carried the possibility of the death penalty, hours after they began deliberations Jan. 26.
Penalty phase
The conviction triggered the penalty phase of the case — which functioned like another full trial, at which prosecutors and defense attorneys questioned witnesses, presented evidence and delivered opening and closing arguments.
During that phase, family members of those killed described in painstaking detail how they’ve been devastated by the loss of their loved ones.
The emotional testimony was referenced in prosecutors’ dramatic closing argument March 7.
“The defendant caused unbearable pain to these families. They are still suffering,” Assistant US Attorney Amanda Houle told 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 asked jurors. “The evidence shows overwhelmingly that it does.”
Houle then described the testimony jurors had heard about how families of the slain victims had been upended.
Nicholas Cleves’ mother, Monica, told the panel she couldn’t put her grief into words, Houle said.
“Monica said . . . all of the enjoyment and connection with life she used to have has been stripped away,” the prosecutor said.
Saipov’s defense attorneys questioned his family members on the stand, most all of whom broke down in tears when they told the jury they still loved him despite what he had done.
Saipov attorney David Patton told jurors, “It is not necessary to kill Sayfullo Saipov, not for our safety or anyone else’s and not to do justice.”