NEW YORK — The first federal death penalty trial of the Biden administration began Monday in New York City with a prosecutor alleging Sayfullo Saipov was on a mission to become a full-fledged member of the ISIS terrorist network when he allegedly killed eight people and injured many others after he plowed a rental truck into people on a pedestrian and bicycling path in lower Manhattan on Halloween 2017.
Assistant U.S. District Attorney Alexander Li promised in his opening statement to show jurors photos of mangled bicycles and bodies, video of the truck racing down Manhattan's West Side Highway and the 32-year-old defendant running through the street before a police officer shot and wounded him. Li said prosecution witnesses will testify of hearing the"roar of the engine" and the"horrible grinding noise" as Saipov allegedly mowed down bicycles and people.
Saipov's attorney, David Patton, conceded in his opening statement that his committed the deadly attack, but disagreed with the motive prosecutors alleged. The defense choice of effectively admitting guilt echoed the strategy of another death penalty defendant charged in a terror attack, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of the Boston Marathon bombing. During the 2015 trial, Tsarnaev's defense attorney, Judy Clark, said in her opening statement that Tsarnaev committed the bombing with his brother, who was killed by police.
Prosecutors said Saipov picked New York City for the attack because he knew it's a busy, crowded metropolis. Had he not crashed into the school bus, prosecutors alleged Saipov would have extended his path of terror onto the Brooklyn Bridge. The suspect allegedly drove the truck on a bike lane and pedestrian walkway in lower Manhattan, near Stuyvesant High School. When the truck collided with the school bus, the driver exited the vehicle holding two objects, a paintball gun and pellet gun, prosecutors said.
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