The person convicted in a 2017 terror assault on a New York Metropolis bike path that killed eight folks was given eight consecutive life sentences on Wednesday. Sayfullo Saipov will serve 260 years consecutive with two extra life sentences to be served concurrently.
The now-35-year-old Uzbekistan citizen drove a rented 6,000-pound pickup truck alongside a well-liked bike path on the East Aspect Freeway in 2017, working over cyclists. He struck greater than 20 folks, and the deceased victims included two People, a Belgian girl and 5 associates who had been visiting from Argentina.
The assault got here to an finish when he crashed into a faculty bus a number of blocks away from the beginning of the assault. The crash left one 14-year-old little one with severe mind accidents, in keeping with a information launch from the U.S. Division of Justice.
Saipov mentioned he had been impressed by ISIS and at trial, his lawyer instructed the jury Saipov had carried out the assault and by no means cross-examined any witnesses, CBS New York reported.
Prosecutors mentioned at trial that Saipov instructed FBI brokers that he was “proud” of what he did, and he carried out the assault in response to calls from the chief of ISIS, the Division of Justice mentioned within the launch. He smiled when he described the assault and needed to hold an ISIS flag in his hospital room, the discharge mentioned.
“These eight life sentences account for the eight lives Saipov stole when he dedicated his vicious ISIS assault,” mentioned Southern District of New York U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams. The sentence consists of the utmost time for 18 tried murders together with the tried murders of 4 youngsters, Williams mentioned.
Saipov will almost definitely be incarcerated on the Administrative Most Facility in Florence, Colorado, Reuters reported, a supermax jail the place he can be housed alongside a number of the world’s most infamous criminals — together with drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Oklahoma Metropolis bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. Ted Kaczynski, the person referred to as the “Unabomber,” had additionally been imprisoned there till being transferred to a North Carolina medical facility in 2021.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons instructed CBS Information that Saipov was being housed at a federal facility in Brooklyn, New York, on the time of his sentencing. For security causes, the BOP would not verify when and to the place Saipov can be transferred. A request for remark to Saipov’s lawyer, David Patton, wasn’t instantly returned.
If Saipov is shipped to the jail, referred to as ADX Florence and the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” he’ll be part of 316 male inmates on the safe facility the place inhabitants have mentioned they spend 22 to 23 hours a day of their cells. Former inmate Garrett Linderman spoke to “60 Minutes” in 2007 and mentioned the isolation “breaks down the human spirit. It breaks down the human psyche. It breaks your thoughts.”
A number of lawsuits in opposition to ADX Florence have described a chaotic setting, with one June 2012 lawsuit stating inmates “interminably wail, scream and bang on the partitions of their cells. Some mutilate their our bodies with razors, shards of glass, writing utensils and no matter different objects they’ll receive.”
A 2017 lawsuit filed by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, referred to as the “Underwear Bomber,” mentioned he is been harassed by guards and prisons for being Muslim. The lawsuit additionally states he went on starvation strikes and was force-fed non-halal meals.
