Liberals, in general, oppose the death penalty, but the radical Islamist terrorist who murdered eight people in New York in 2017 won’t be spared by the prosecutors.
On Halloween day in 2017, Sayfullo Saipov drove his rental truck over a Manhattan bike path to intentionally mow down a dozen people, killing eight of them. Five of these victims were from Argentina, one was a woman from Belgium, and two were Americans. Saipov was charged with 28 counts of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism.
During the investigation and trial, details about Sayfullo Saipov revealed him as an ISIS-inspired radical Islamist, who migrated from his home country of Uzbekistan to the United States in 2010 under the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program that was launched under George H. W. Bush in 1990. David Patton, defense attorney for Saipov, stated in the trial that Saipov “intended to be killed and to ascend to heaven as a martyr after the attack.”
Last month, Saipov was found guilty on all 28 charges. Now, federal prosecutors have asked the New York jury to award him the death penalty, the first time federal prosecutors under Joe Biden are asking for capital punishment. Up on assuming the Oval Office, Biden had promised to end the death penalty, which was one of his campaign promises.
It’s worth noting that while some conservative news media have specified Saipov as an “Islamic fanatic” in their reporting, left-leaning media outlets have refrained from mentioning Islamic radicalism or radical Islamic terrorism in their headlines as well as mostly in their stories. Reuters even attempted to tacitly dissuade its readers against capital punishment for Saipov by throwing in some irrelevant context:
Saipov’s victims included tourists from Argentina and Belgium, both countries that have abolished the death penalty.
In case Saipov is not awarded the death penalty by the jury, he faces life in prison without parole – the scenario Saipov’s attorneys are looking at as their best bet.
And while the jury deliberates on whether to award the death penalty to Saipov, another vehicular crime of similar nature was reported from Brooklyn, NY, on Monday. Using a u-Haul truck, Malaysian immigrant Weng Sor hit and injured eight people in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Sor has previously been arrested and jailed for stabbing people more than once.