Life in prison, not death penalty, for man convicted in New York City bike path terror attack

A split among jurors means there will be no death penalty for an Islamic extremist who deliberately raced a truck along a popular New York City bike path in 2017, killing eight people and maiming others. The decision means Sayfullo Saipov, 35, an Uzbekistan citizen who lived in New Jersey, gets an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole in the October 2017 attack.

Jurors told the judge Monday that they were unable to reach the unanimous verdict required for a death sentence.

If the death sentence had been imposed, it would have been the first in New York in 60 years, CBS New York reports.

The sentencing was the culmination of a trial that featured emotional testimony from survivors of the attack and relatives of the five tourists from Argentina, two Americans and a Belgian woman who were killed.

The same jury convicted the defendant on January of 28 of charges including murder in aid of racketeering and supporting a terrorist organization.

Jurors returned last month for a penalty phase to decide whether he should be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life at a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Over several days, prosecutors argued for the harshest punishment. Some of the defendant’s relatives testified that they still loved him and hoped he would eventually realize the evil of his act.

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