Mohamed Mohamud, the young Somali-American accused of trying to blow up Portland’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Pioneer Courthouse Square more than two years, has been found guilty today of attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction.
The Oregonian has a pretty quickly topped story up right now on the verdict, announced just after 3. The paper also says Mohamud will appeal his conviction.
The jury handed up its verdict after less than a full day of deliberations in a trial that began Jan. 10 in a downtown courtroom just a few blocks from the scene of the crime.
Mohamud, a 21-year-old Somali American, was convicted of the only charge confronting him: trying to use a weapon of mass destruction. He faces a potential sentence of life in prison. Sentencing was set for May 14.
Mohamud was never in possession of actual explosives. He was nurtured by FBI operatives mounting a sting operation—an increasingly common antiterrorism tactic. Immediately after Mohamud’s arrest, entrapment emerged as a major issue. Like in other FBI terror stings, what would have been the keystone recording in the case—the recording that captured Mohamud’s first meeting with operatives—was missing.
The O mentions the groundwork Mohamud’s attorneys laid toward that eventual appeal.
Among the key points: U.S. District Judge Garr M. King, who presided in the case, ruled that Mohamud’s lawyers could not know the true identity of the undercover agents who helped make the sting; he said giving up their names would put the agents’ lives at risk and potentially damage ongoing national security cases.
By not allowing the defense to know the identities of the agents, who were allowed to use their pseudonyms at trial, the defense could make no inquiries about whether the agents had been disciplined or been found to have lied in previous cases.
I do not understand how juries keep ignoring the obvious entrapment of people including Mohamed Mohamud. What sort of myopic, fear-riddled people do they find for jurors?
@ERN – I tend to have strong faith in the jury process. I’m sure there was a huge and overwhelming pile of evidence that this kid enthusiastically went about building a bomb to kill lots of people, and thus he was found guilty. Unfortunately, I’ve only heard accounts of this evidence: like a video of MoMo wiring together these bombs, and that he discussed options for how to attack.
On the defense’s side, there’s certainly an element that this kid would not have had the ability or will, or, means or opportunity, to carry out these attacks without the FBI. In other words: this dude would have been harmless if the FBI didn’t push him along. I actually agree with this, as there’s at least some evidence that at one point MoMo tried to leave but the FBI didn’t let him. But even if you accept this: then what are you to do? Let this kid walk free? Let him walk around in the town where tried to kill hundreds of innocent people? Maybe kick him out of the State? Sure, he might have been persuaded, he might of even been forced, but he’s still a guilty bastard who pushed the button.
I would like to assume, @ERN, that if I held a gun to your head, and put a detonator in your hand, you would choose to take a bullet rather than knowingly kill hundreds of innocent people. I don’t think this kid ever had a gun to his head…and the defense clearly did not make the convincing argument that he was entrapped/forced to do this.
Unfortunate but predictable. I have seen the juror process at work and believe me people are dumb. One should avoid a jury trial at all cost’s if one were ever faced with it.
Until people pull their heads out of their asses and give the FBI some real legal resistance and precedent, they’re going to continue to setting up mentally deficient patsy’s (they stalked this kid for over 10 months before they approached him!) and concoct plots out of whole cloth, terrorizing people to justify their existence, get more funding, and blackmail city’s such as ours to force in the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Awww, poor wannabe terrorist.
Also, I love how the FBI always has “recorder malfunctions” right when they need them.
Leave it to an ALL-WHITE jury! Dude never had a fucking chance!!! FUCK THE FBI/JTTF!!!!!
@Spindles. The jury process is absurd, true, but I think we might disagree on how. Remember kids, if you’re innocent, request a bench trial. If you’re guilty, a jury is your best bet.