Skip to content

Cart

Your cart is empty

Article: Man convicted of New York bike path attack to be formally sentenced to life

Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the New York City truck attack is seen in this handout photo

Man convicted of New York bike path attack to be formally sentenced to life

FILE PHOTO: Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the New York City truck attack is seen in this handout photo released November 1, 2017. St. Charles County Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge is set on Wednesday to formally mete out a life sentence to the Uzbek man convicted of killing eight people and injuring dozens more in a 2017 attack in which he drove a rented truck down a New York City bike path crowded with cyclists and pedestrians.

Twenty-five people who survived the attack and family members of people who died are scheduled to speak during a hearing in federal court in Manhattan before U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick imposes the sentence on Sayfullo Saipov, convicted in January of murder and terrorism charges.

The sentence of life in prison without parole became automatic in the case after a jury deadlocked on whether Saipov, 35, should receive the death penalty.

Saipov used a Home Depot rental truck to mow down people on a path along the Hudson River on Manhattan's West Side, according to prosecutors. He had hoped to the attack would help him gain membership in Islamic State, or ISIS, they said. The United States designates ISIS as a terrorist organization.

Many of the people killed or injured were foreign nationals visiting the most populous U.S. city. Most of the people scheduled to speak at the hearing are traveling from Argentina and Belgium. Each speaker will have about five minutes to address the court and, if needed, will have an interpreter, according to prosecutors.

It was unclear whether Saipov will address the court during the proceeding. He is expected to be housed at Colorado's Supermax facility, the most secure U.S. federal prison. There he is due to spend 22 or 23 hours a day alone in a cell with a concrete bed.

Saipov's case was the first federal death penalty trial since President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021 after pledging during his campaign to abolish capital punishment in federal cases.

 

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Will Dunham)

MORE FROM THE

OAF NATION NEWSROOM

Illustrative photo — A U.S. Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon takes off from the 177th Fighter Wing at the Atlantic City Air National Guard Base

Factbox: Why Ukraine is pushing for F-16 jets and will it succeed?

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A U.S. Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon takes off from the 177th Fighter Wing at the Atlantic City Air National Guard Base, New Jersey, Jan. 13, 2023. (U.S. Air N...

Read more
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, takes part in the ceremony of signing an agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway

Russia and Iran sign rail deal for corridor intended to rival Suez Canal

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday oversaw, via video-link, the signing of a deal to finance and build an Iranian railway line as part of an emb...

Read more
#3 Liquid error (layout/theme line 179): Could not find asset snippets/back-in-stock-helper.liquid