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Jury recommends death for CIA shooter
November 14, 1997
Web posted at: 7:44 p.m. EST (0044 GMT)FAIRFAX, Virginia (CNN) -- A Virginia jury has recommended the death penalty for a Pakistani national who went on a shooting rampage outside of CIA headquarters in 1993.
Mir Aimal Kasi, 33, was convicted Monday of two counts of murder and three counts of malicious wounding for shooting two CIA employees and wounding three others with an assault rifle. After about seven hours of deliberation, the jury recommended that Kasi be executed for one of those two murders.
Kasi showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Jurors had already recommended a life sentence on the other murder charge, 20 years for each malicious wounding count and 18 years for five firearms charges. The final sentence will be up to the judge. He scheduled sentencing for January 23.
According to testimony in the trial, Kasi confessed to federal agents that he had gone on the shooting rampage in protest of American treatment of Muslims around the world.
He walked from car to car shooting commuters as they were stuck in morning rush-hour traffic outside of CIA headquarters in suburban Virginia.
Kasi fled the country after the shootings. He was later captured in Pakistan and returned to the United States to stand trial.
The defense had argued that Kasi should be spared the death penalty because brain damage he suffered as a baby left him unable to appreciate his actions.
But prosecutors had portrayed him as a remorseless killer who was proud of his actions.
The jury had been sequestered Wednesday after four American oil workers were slain in Karachi, Pakistan. A group sympathetic to Kasi claimed responsibility for those slayings and vowed more violence if Kasi was sentenced to death. But U.S. officials have downplayed that claim, saying it could not be substantiated.
After returning their guilty verdict Monday, the jury sent a note to Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge J. Howe Brown saying they feared for their safety. In an effort to protect them, the judge ordered that jurors' identities be permanently sealed.
Related stories:
- Jury deliberates CIA shooter's fate - November 13, 1997
- Jurors sequestered in CIA shooting case - November 12, 1997
- CNN - Pakistan killings raised in CIA shooting trial - November 12, 1997
- Family says gunman at CIA 'loved America' - November 11, 1997
- CIA shooting trial goes to jury - November 10, 1997
- Prosecutor: U.S. Mideast policy motivated CIA shooting - November 5, 1997
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