NYC truck attack terrorist Sayfullo Saipov faced an anonymous jury (Image via Mugshot Handout/Getty Images.)
New York City truck attack terrorist Sayfullo Saipov’s fate had been sealed before his sentencing began.
As a jury could not agree on the death penalty in March, Saipov will spend the rest of his life in prison for intentionally mowing down civilians on the Hudson River greenway for the Islamic State group, leaving eight people dead and 12 wounded. That decree became formal during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, where his many victims unleashed their anguish at the unrepentant killer.
The wife of one of the men he left dead wished for the rest of his days to expire soon.
“Saipov, your God thinks you’re a coward because you didn’t kill yourself when you killed them,” Gabriela Pabla Pereya, the widow of Argentine victim Ariel Erlij. told the killer directly. “And if you want to make him accept you and love you, go kill yourself.”
After facing hours of their outrage, Saipov treated his final remarks as a wordy, hourlong sermon, riffing on conversations between God and the Devil and parables shared by the three Abrahamic faiths, including Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah. Only rarely did Saipov shift gears to his violent ideology.
“This fight between Islam and kafir became fight until Doomsday,” Saipov said through an Arabic interpreter, using the slur for non-Muslims.
Saipov then continued on his pious recitation until he finally, nearly an hour in, offhandedly and remorselessly alluded to the pain of his victims. He unfavorably compared it to the suffering of Muslims.
‘Defeat hate with love and understanding’
On Oct. 31, 2017, Saipov intentionally drove a rental truck off the West Side Highway onto a bicycle and pedestrian greenway. Saipov freely admitted to targeting civilians and said that he chose Halloween because more people would be out and about on that day. The Home Depot truck that Saipov rented stopped after crashing into a special-needs school bus.
Investigators work around the wreckage of a Home Depot pickup truck, a day after it was used in an terror attack, in New York on Nov. 1, 2017. (Image via JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images.)
For those deeds, Saipov will spend 22 hours a day in a maximum security cell in ADX prison, and his sentencing gave victims an opportunity to address him before he’s sent to a lifetime of solitary confinement. Some 20 of his victims addressed the killer, from Belgium to the United States to Argentina.
For Pereya, the fact that Saipov remains alive was a “shame” on the U.S. justice system, and she scolded U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick directly.
Broderick himself called Saipov’s case “among the worst, if not the worst” that he’s ever seen. Though capital punishment was off the table, the judge issued as harsh a penalty as the law allowed, giving Saipov eight life sentences plus 260 years imprisonment, to be served consecutively. It was a symbolic edict, as the judge had the option to have the sentences run concurrently.
Relatives of Belgian victim Ann-Laure Decadt, whose country abolished the death penalty more than a quarter-century ago, did not agree.
“I will always try to defeat hate with love and understanding,” sister Justine Decadt said.
In a visual gesture of solidarity, the victims wore white shirts with a red heart over its left breast, with the word “TOGETHER” on top of it and “STRONGER” below. They took turns confronting Saipov with rage, grief, and befuddlement.
Whether receiving their fury or forgiveness, Saipov cast his gaze down at the black defense table, and multiple victims remarked that he still could not look them in the eyes. Aristide Melissas, who was wounded in the attack, said that he hoped to look into those eyes to get an answer to one of his questions.
“Are you the victim of religious fanaticism, or are you a monster?” Melissas said.
Ariel Benvenuto, another Argentine survivor, ventured a third option.
“You’re not a monster,” Benvenuto said. “You’re merely a coward.”
Argentinian survivors of the attack Guillermo Banchini, left, hugs Ariel Benvenuto, centre, next to Juan Pablo Trevisan, top right, during a press conference on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
After emerging from his rental truck six years ago, Saipov shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.” One victim, Rachel Pharn, pointedly translated the phrase back at him as “God is greater,” in the final words delivered by any of the survivors. Law enforcement shot him at the scene, before taking him to Bellevue Hospital for medical treatment. He asked authorities to let him hang the ISIS flag at the hospital.
‘Parental annihilation’
Saipov’s sentence was baked into a jury’s verdict earlier this year in March, when the panel did not reach unanimity on capital punishment. The only alternative for Saipov under the law, given his crimes of conviction, was spending the rest of his natural life in prison without the opportunity for parole.
Like the jury, the victims were conflicted about whether Saipov should live or die.
Widow Maria Sosa, wife of Alejandro Pagnucco, told Saipov: “You’re worthless. You do not even deserve a place in this world.”
Monica Missio, the mother of 23-year-old Nicholas Cleves, ached at the profound loss of her only son so early in his life.
“I call it parental annihilation,” Missio said. “It’s a one-way ticket from which there is no return.”
Speaking of the “unbearable” and “haunting” image of her son’s recognition of Saipov’s truck speeding toward his bike, Missio asked: ““What were his last terrifying thoughts?”
“This evil murderer has destroyed so many lives,” Missio said. “It disgusts me that he gets to wake up every day and my son does not.”
Aunt Nicole Missio expressed more ambivalence about the fact that Saipov won’t be executed.
“I don’t care if the monster lives or dies,” the aunt said. “I never did. This evil act happened, and nothing could change that.”
Though New York abolished the death penalty in 2004, capital punishment is still available in federal courts. Saipov was charged during the tenure of then-President Donald Trump.
After President Joe Biden’s Justice Department took over, Attorney General Merrick Garland continued to pursue the death penalty, despite the AG’s stated reservations about it. Prosecutors fought vigorously for Saipov’s execution and lost that battle before a jury.
The Belgian survivors emphasized the need to rise above their rage.
“I decided to forgive, refusing to fall into hatred,” Decadt’s widower said.
Joining with his Argentine peers, he added in Spanish: “Que el amor venza al odio,” may love overcome any hatred. The slogan was also emblazoned over the right breast of his shirt.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
