Seattle Jewish Federation Muslim murderer may be let off

[SavetheWest]

This animal may get away with murder.  Why is it hard to lock up someone who shot someone in front of a bunch of people?


Jury may be stuck on Haq murder charge
Questions suggest panel can't agree in shooting trial
By TRACY JOHNSON
P-I REPORTER

Jurors in the Jewish Federation shooting trial are beginning their fourth day of deliberations Thursday, a day after suggesting they hadn't been able to decide whether Naveed Haq is guilty of the most serious charge.

The jury sent out a note Wednesday morning asking whether they should move on to consider the second charge if they couldn't agree on the first -- that Haq committed murder by killing federation worker Pamela Waechter, 58.

The panel also wanted to know whether they could consider the 15 charges against Haq in any order.

The questions suggested the panel couldn't agree whether Haq was guilty of either first- or second-degree murder -- let alone the aggravated-murder charge that would mean a life sentence -- and that deliberations could take considerable time.

Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas noted that the murder charge may be the most complex. After consulting briefly with King County prosecutors and Haq's attorneys, she sent a note back to the jurors saying simply:

"Please continue your deliberations. The jury may consider the counts in any order the jury deems fit."

The next five counts are attempted-murder charges for the five workers who were wounded in the rampage July 28, 2006, at the federation's Belltown offices. The rest include hate-crime, kidnapping, burglary and unlawful-imprisonment charges.

Jurors must decide whether Haq, 32, was insane at the time of the crime, or, as his attorneys also have argued, that he didn't intend to kill anyone.

They told jurors the man, with his long history of mental illness, believed he was on a mission from God and that he could alter the course of two wars -- in Iraq and Lebanon -- if he took hostages and got on the national news.

Prosecutors have argued that Haq planned the rampage as a way to make a political statement against Jews, the Iraq war and other U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

They emphasized that he searched for a Jewish organization to target, drove from his Tri-Cities home to commit the crime, bought guns in advance and even test-fired them to see which was easier to shoot.

Jurors heard about six weeks of testimony from witnesses, including the surviving victims, Haq's family and mental-health experts, before beginning their deliberations Friday.

P-I reporter Tracy Johnson can be reached at 206-467-5942 or [email protected].

[underthesun]

Jurors must decide whether Haq, 32, was insane at the time of the crime, or, as his attorneys also have argued, that he didn't intend to kill anyone.

There has been a bomb attack lately by an mentally ill Muslim.
I guess the terrorists acquired a taste for using disabled people to commit violence.
For them it is probably getting rid of two problems at once.