Jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty in the case of Sayfullo Soyipov, a citizen of Uzbekistan who committed a terrorist attack in New York in 2017. Therefore, the defendant will be sentenced to life in prison, CNN reports.
In early January 2023, the jury found Soyipov guilty of 28 counts, including murder, attempted murder, and supporting a foreign terrorist group, but New York law required him to face all of the jury's verdicts in order to be sentenced to death. At least 12 members are required to agree to this, thus, no consensus has been reached. Capital punishment has not been used in New York state since 1953.
According to the law, the death penalty is replaced by long-term imprisonment. The judge is obliged to issue such a verdict and cannot change it. The final part of the sentence will be announced later.
Prosecutors had previously cited various factors that made the suspect deserving of execution. Among these is the fact that Soipov's attack was planned in advance and was carried out in order to support a terrorist organization.
Background on Soyipov's criminal history
Sayfulla Soyipov was born on February 8, 1988, in Tashkent. He graduated from vocational college in 2005 and studied at Tashkent Financial Institute from 2005-2009. After graduation, he worked as an accountant at the "Sayohat" Hotel in the capital.
He went to the United States in 2010 with a green card. On October 31, 2017, he rented a small truck and invaded the bike lane. Five people from Argentina and one citizen of Belgium were among eight people who became victims of it, and 12 more people were injured. Soyipov was stopped by a policeman who shot him in the stomach.
Soyipov admitted that he acted on behalf of ISIS and called himself a "soldier" of this group. (He was not prosecuted and did not come to the attention of law enforcement until he left for the United States).
Sayfullo Soyipov will spend the rest of his life at ADX Florence, a maximum security federal prison in Colorado. Dzhokhar Sarnayev, who was convicted of bombing the Boston Marathon in April 2013, and was sentenced to death, is also serving his sentence in this prison.
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