Thursday, June 5, 2008

Judge declares mistrial in Haq case; Jewish Federation jury couldn't agree | Seattle Times Newspaper

Judge declares mistrial in Haq case; Jewish Federation jury couldn't agree | Seattle Times Newspaper, June 5, 2008:

Women with scars on their bodies and indelible memories of gunfire struggled to grasp an incongruous truth: After six weeks of testimony, thousands of pages of evidence and eight days of deliberation, a jury couldn't decide on the guilt or innocence of their attacker, Naveed Haq.
Not contesting that he was the shooter, Haq pled not guilty by reason of insanity. It appears the jury wrestled with the standard, which requires that the defendant be unable to perceive the nature and quality of the act with which he is charged; or that he was unable to tell right from wrong with reference to that act. A couple of days ago they sent a note to the judge asking for definitions of "nature" and "quality" and "right" and "wrong."

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg says that the office will prosecute Haq again.

The jury was deadlocked on all counts but one. With respect to one of the victims, the jury found Haq not guilty of attempted first-degree murder, but deadlocked on attempted second-degree murder, which can be charged again. (See RCW 9A.28.020, Criminal Attempt, RCW 9A.32.030, Murder in the First Degree, and RCW 9A.32.050, Murder in the Second Degree.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What Mr.Haq did was cold-blooded murder.In my opinion there is no such thing as 'temporary insanity'.He knew what he was doing.And he knew that what he was doing was wrong.He knows the difference between right and wrong.I hope that Mr.Satterberg can successfully prosecute Mr.Haq,and see that justice prevails.Kenneth.