2017 New York IS killer found guilty

DAY

Sayfullo Saipov, a radicalized Uzbek who killed eight cyclists and pedestrians in a large vehicle in New York in 2017 on behalf of the Islamic State group, was found guilty by a federal jury on Thursday in Manhattan, where he faces the death penalty. 

The 34-year-old, who had been on trial since January 9, was found guilty of 28 counts, including eight of 'murder to join the Islamic State', 'which carry the death penalty or life in prison,” the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office said.

On Halloween Day in 2017, Sayfullo Saipov launched his pickup truck on a boardwalk along the Hudson River in lower Manhattan, claiming many victims and eight dead, including five Argentinians and one Belgian.

It was the deadliest toll for an attack in New York after those of September 11, 2001.

This trial is the first federally in Joe Biden's term where the death penalty is at stake.

Elected in November 2020, the Democratic president had promised during his campaign to work to abolish the death penalty at the federal level and his Minister of Justice had decreed a moratorium on federal executions shortly after the election, not preventing those decided by States.

But in a Sept. 16, 2022, court document in Sayfullo Saipov's case file, Manhattan District Attorney Damian Williams acknowledged the Justice Department's decision “to continue to seek the sentence of death” in this case, a position decided under the mandate of Donald Trump (2017-2021).

According to the Manhattan prosecution, the debates to define the sentence will begin on February 6 before the same jury of twelve people, who will have to be unanimous if they want to condemn Saipov to the death penalty.

The death penalty has been abolished in the State of New York but it can be applied in the case of a federal lawsuit. Nevertheless, the last execution dates back several decades in this state.