Tribeca Terror Suspect May Plead Guilty, Lawyers Say

TRIBECA, NY — The suspected terrorist who killed eight people on a Tribeca bike path in October would consider pleading guilty if federal prosecutors don't seek the death penalty, his lawyers wrote in a letter Wednesday.

Sayfullo Saipov, the New Jersey man charged with aiding a terrorist organization in the Oct. 31 attack, would accept a lifelong prison sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, his attorneys wrote to U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick, calling such a deal the "most straightforward" resolution to the case.

"(A) decision by the Government not to seek the death penalty would bring immediate closure to the case without the need for the public and victims to repeatedly relive the terrible events of October 31, 2017," the lawyers, David Patton, Jennifer Brown and Annalisa Miron, wrote in the letter filed in Manhattan federal court.

Saipov, an Uzbeki immigrant, killed eight people and injured 12 when he drove a rented pickup truck down the Hudson River Greenway on Halloween. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group, and officials said he followed the group's instructions for vehicuar attacks almost exactly.

Saipov has pleaded not guilty to federal charges including providing material support to a terrorist organization, murder, attempted murder and racketeering.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty in Saipov's case. In a letter to Broderick dated Wednesday, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said prosecutors are waiting until May for information from Saipov's defense lawyers before making any formal request to the U.S. Justice Department's Capital Case Unit, which must review prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty.

Berman proposed starting Saipov's trial in April 2019, with various deadlines for attorneys on both sides spread out over the next year.

The court should set a trial date early to ensure witnesses and victims of the attack can testify and get closure, prosecutors argued. Many live in other parts of the U.S. and in other countries, Berman's letter says. Five of those killed were visiting from Argentina, and a sixth victim was from Belgium.

"It is deeply traumatic for these bereaved, seriously injured, or otherwise traumatized victims and their families to endure reliving Saipov’s attack by recounting the details, and victims have already expressed to the Government concern about delays in this process," Berman wrote.

But Saipov's attorneys argued the government's proposed schedule moved too quickly. They noted that it takes more than a year on average for the Justice Department to hear defense lawyers' arguments against pursuing the death penalty, while the deadline in Saipov's case would come just six months after his indictment.

The lawyers also called it "premature" to set a trial date now because the "length and type of trial in this case, and whether there will be a trial at all, will depend greatly on whether the government seeks the death penalty," they wrote.

Saipov's truck attack was the deadliest in New York City since 9/11. Akayed Ullah's bombing in a subway tunnel near Times Square followed less than six weeks later.

(Lead image: An undated photo provided by St. Charles County Department of Corrections via KMOV shows Sayfullo Saipov. (St. Charles County Department of Corrections/KMOV via AP)