NYC bike path killer Sayfullo Saipov avoids death penalty

Sayfullo Saipov (right) was sentenced to life in prison for the attack that 8 people on a bike path in Manhattan (Picture: AP / REUTERS)

The man convicted of killing eight people on a New York City bike path avoided the death penalty on Monday after a jury announced they could not come to a unanimous decision.

Sayfullo Saipov, 35, was found guilty earlier this year for the Halloween 2017 attack in Lower Manhattan. He faced a total of 28 federal charges, including murder, attempted murder, and providing material support for terrorism.

After the jury found him guilty on January 26, his trial moved to the penalty phase.

New York State abolished the death penalty in 1984, but Saipov was indicted by a federal grand jury. Capital punishment is still legal on the federal level, but a jury must approve of it by unanimous decision.

Sayfullo Saipov is seen in a booking photo after his arrest in 2017 (Picture: AP)

Had a jury approved the death penalty, he would have become the first person executed in New York since 1963. The last time a person was executed for a federal crime in New York was 1954.

Shortly after 2pm on Monday afternoon, the jury delivered a note to District Judge Vernon Broderick informing him that they could not come to a unanimous decision.

Prosecutors pleaded with jurors to reconsider the death penalty for the convicted terrorist, arguing that he was ‘unremorseful’ for the eight deaths in 2017.

Saipov killed the victims by ramming them with a rented U-Haul truck (Picture: AP)

New Yorkers pray at a memorial for the eight people killed in Saipov’s 2017 attack (Picture: AP)

Defense Attorney David Patton asked jurors to send his client to prison, so that he will die ‘in obscurity, not as a martyr, not as a hero to anyone.’

Hours later, Broderick accepted this verdict and sentenced Saipov to life in prison without parole.

Saipov will be sent to ADX Florence, a supermax prison facility in Colorado which houses some of the most notorious criminals, including ‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, and several Al Qaeda members who helped plan the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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