Defense Moves to Bar Death Penalty in New York Bike-Path Killings, Citing ​“Nakedly Political” Tweets

Defense attor­neys for Sayfullo Saipov (pic­tured), the man accused of killing eight peo­ple by dri­ving a truck onto a Manhattan bike path on October 31, 2017, have asked a New York fed­er­al dis­trict court to bar the U.S. gov­ern­ment from seek­ing the death penal­ty against Saipov. Arguing that President Donald Trump has uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly inject­ed ​“naked­ly polit­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions” into the Department of Justice’s charg­ing deci­sion, Saipov’s lawyers on September 6, 2018, filed a motion before Judge Vincent Broderick to pre­clude fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors from pur­su­ing the death penal­ty or, alter­na­tive­ly, ​“to appoint an inde­pen­dent pros­e­cu­tor to decide whether the death penal­ty should be pur­sued” in the case. The defense fil­ing cites sev­er­al tweets in which the President direct­ly called for Saipov’s exe­cu­tion and anoth­er in which Mr. Trump ridiculed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is ulti­mate­ly respon­si­ble for decid­ing whether to seek any fed­er­al death sen­tence, for mov­ing for­ward with two pros­e­cu­tions that could cost Republicans seats in the U.S. Congress. In sep­a­rate tweets short­ly after the truck attack, Trump used all cap­i­tal let­ters to demand the death penal­ty for Saipov, exclaim­ing ​“SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!” and ​“Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!” In a lat­er tweet, he referred to Saipov as a ​“degen­er­ate ani­mal.” The motion fur­ther alleges that President Trump ​“has recent­ly tweet­ed that he expects non-case relat­ed polit­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions to gov­ern Attorney General Sessions’ charg­ing deci­sions,” point­ing to a tweet that ​“exco­ri­at­ed” Sessions for the indict­ments of ​“two very pop­u­lar Republican Congressmen … just ahead of the Mid-Terms.” Trump deri­sive­ly tweet­ed: ​“Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job, Jeff.” Saipov’s lawyers note that this tweet attack on Attorney General Sessions comes at the same time that the President’s per­son­al attor­ney, Rudolph Giuliani, ​‘con­firmed that he and Trump have dis­cussed Sessions’ pos­si­ble removal.’” The motion argues that “[t]he pres­sure from Mr. Trump’s intem­per­ate demands are sim­ply too great for Attorney General Sessions or any­one else who works for President Trump to appro­pri­ate­ly exer­cise the fact-based, inde­pen­dent deci­sion-mak­ing process required” in cap­i­tal cas­es. This, they argue, cre­ates an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al risk that any deci­sion to seek death will be — or appear to be — the prod­uct of ​“President Trump’s arbi­trary, unin­formed and emo­tion­al impuls­es … and/​or his insis­tence that the Justice Department’s charg­ing deci­sions should be con­trolled by polit­i­cal cal­cu­la­tions.” There is no death penal­ty in New York state. Federal pros­e­cu­tors have not yet announced whether they intend to seek a death sen­tence in the case.

(Benjamin Weiser, In Truck Attack Case, an Unlikely Complication to a Federal Capital Prosecution: Trump’s Tweets, New York Times, September 6, 2018; John Riley, Don’t seek death penal­ty for bike-path ter­ror sus­pect, court papers say, Newsday, September 6, 2018; Mikhaila Fogel, Document: Trump’s Tweets Preclude Death Penalty in Saipov Case, Defense Argues, Lawfare, September 6, 2018.) Read the Motion to Preclude Death Penalty in United States v. Saipov. See Federal Death Penalty.