Three years after the deadly shooting, and 17 months since jurors hearing the case deadlocked, accused Greater Seattle Jewish Federation gunman Naveed Haq will again face a jury.
The facts of the case remain, as all sides acknowledge, clear — Haq left the Tri-Cities on July 28, 2006, drove to the center, where he gunned down federation worker Pam Waechter and wounded five other women. Equally clear and uncontested is Haq’s history of mental illness, which prosecutors admit while arguing that Haq’s psychological state the day of the shooting does not meet the threshold set for a not guilty verdict.
That clarity will be of little assistance to jurors, who will be asked to determine whether Haq’s mind was clouded by psychotic delusion, as his attorneys claim, or simple hate.
In police reports left largely unchallenged by Haq’s defense team, investigators describe the terror felt by those at the Belltown neighborhood office as Haq barged into the center with a gun at the back of a teenage girl. Having gained entry to the secure Third Avenue facility, Haq spoke to the girl before releasing her.
“I’m only doing this for a statement,” Haq allegedly said.
Arriving at the center’s reception desk, according to police statements, Haq opened fire on workers there; Haq allegedly chased down Waechter, already injured in the initial shooting, and shot her in the head as she attempted to flee. Then, holding a gun to the head of a injured woman who was 17 weeks pregnant at the time, Haq offered his demands to a 911 operator.
Offering his name and social security number, Haq allegedly went on to demand that the United States military leave Iraq, complained that Muslims in the Middle East were “getting pushed around” by Israel and asked to be connected with CNN.
When the operator told him she couldn’t make that happen, he agreed to surrender to police. Following the shooting, Haq made numerous anti-Semitic comments to investigators.
In addition to an aggravated murder charge which would carry a mandatory life sentence and several attempted murder charges, King County prosecutors have charged Haq under the state hate crime statute.
Now, though, Haq’s attorneys point to those statements and his outlandish demands as evidence that Haq, now 34, was insane at the time of the crime. Such a finding, were the jury to make it, would see Haq confined at a state hospital until he was deemed fit to be released.
The key questions for jurors will likely be whether Haq could “perceive the nature and quality” of his alleged actions or “tell right from wrong” while committing them. If his mental illness prevented him from making either distinction, a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity would follow under state law.
Following the 2008 deadlock, jurors said they were hung-up on whether Haq acted with premeditation, a predicate for aggravated first-degree murder. One juror said she was prepared to find that Haq was insane at the time of the shooting.
In the trial set to begin Wednesday morning, prosecutors will bring a potentially key piece of evidence in that regard — tapes of jailhouse phone calls made by Haq in the weeks following his arrest.
According to court documents, Haq tells his mother he is a “soldier of Islam” and argues that she should be proud of him for the shooting. Though baptized as a Christian, Haq had returned to Islam prior to the shooting.
“I just want to tell you the reason I did this is because I want to become a martyr. Martyr,” Haq allegedly told his mother. “You know I wanted to go to heaven. I want to be a Jihadi. I did it to be a Jihadi.
“Now I pray every day for martyrdom.”
Earlier this year, a King County Superior Court judge ruled the tapes could be admitted at trial despite objections from Haq’s attorney.
Opening statements are expected to begin Wednesday morning, with the trial stretching into late November. Haq remains confined at King County Jail; in addition to aggravated first-degree murder, he has been charged with five counts of attempted first-degree murder, unlawful imprisonment and malicious harassment, the state’s hate crime statute.
(Source: Seattle Post)
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One Response
This is not fair at all. The fact that legislation is not in place to prevent jihadists from seeking protection under the insanity clause is an obvious and blatant deficiency in the Washington State legislators commitment to duty. What were they doing the past few years – watching TV? For crying out loud – legislators :fix your laws! Do something for your country!