A New York jury, swayed by lawyers' arguments that a death sentence would merely create a martyr to inspire other anti-US militants, instead sentenced Mohamed Rashid Daoud Al Owhali to life imprisonment Tuesday for blowing up the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, said reports.
The 12 members of the Manhattan jury said they disagreed over whether Mohamed Owhali, 24, should be executed for having a direct role in the Nairobi attack that killed 213 people, leaving the judge, Leonard Sand, with the only other sentencing option of life without parole, said Reuters.
Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Owhali, convicted of murder and conspiracy on May 30 in a trial of four men linked to the twin embassy blasts in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Thousands more were injured in the August 7 blasts that the US authorities have linked to Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network of militants -- to which all four men belonged, according to prosecutors, quoted by AFP.
The jurors also found mitigating circumstances in Owhali's favor, and nine of the 12 found that "executing (Owhali) may not alleviate the victims' suffering."
Five jurors considered that life in prison was a worse punishment than death, four that lethal injection was "very humane and the defendant may not suffer," according to AFP.
Owhali, 23, confessed to playing a direct role in the Nairobi bombing in which 213 people died, assisting the driver of the truck carrying the bomb to the embassy, and then throwing stun grenades at embassy guards.
He showed no emotion as his sentence was read, said the agency.
Owhali had been convicted on May 29, along with three others, of conspiring with Bin Laden to kill Americans. Bin Laden, a fugitive, was also indicted in the broad plot that included the twin bombings – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
