*EPF311 07/11/01
Dar es Salaam Embassy Bomber Gets Life in Prison
(Jury unable to agree on death penalty for K.K. Mohamed) (830)
By Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Correspondent

New York -- The Tanzanian convicted of murdering 11 in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole July 10 after a jury was unable to agree on the death penalty.

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, was given life in prison by the same jury of seven women and five men that in May convicted him and three others in a terrorist conspiracy against Americans and the almost simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998. In June, the jury also spared the life of Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, who was convicted of murdering 213 in the Nairobi bombing.

"We, the jury, are unable to reach a unanimous verdict either in favor of a life sentence or in favor of a death sentence for any of the capital counts. We understand that the consequence of this is that Khalfan Khamis Mohamed will be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release," the jury's forewoman said.

Judge Leonard Sand set September 19 for Mohamed's sentencing.

The trial and death penalty hearings took more than six months and was the first time since 1954 that the U.S. Government had asked for the death penalty in New York. It was also the first time the government had asked for the death penalty in the case of terrorism committed against Americans on foreign soil.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Mary Jo White said after the verdict that "in the government's view, the just and appropriate sentence was the death penalty. But in our system of justice, the ultimate sentence of death requires the unanimous vote of all 12 jurors. That is a critical safeguard, and we respect both the process and the jury's efforts.

"No conviction or sentence, of course, can bring back the victims or make their families whole, but they will never be forgotten," White said in a written statement.

David Stern, one of Mohamed's attorneys, said that his client is "grateful he's been given a chance to live his life. Like all human beings he has good and bad [qualities]."

The jury did unanimously agree that the government had proven beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of the four so-called gateway factors that are necessary to continue deliberations on the death penalty, but it did not agree with the government that Mohamed posed a continuing and serious threat to the lives and safety of others with whom he will come in contact, one of three non-statutory aggravating factors cited.

The government said that Mohamed was involved in an attack on a prison guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility while awaiting trial and that he would continue to pose a threat to prison officials. The guard is now partially paralyzed, and has damaged speech and limited vision.

On the mitigating factors put forth by the defense, 10 jurors found that Mohamed was not a leader and that his participation was relatively minor; 11 jurors agreed that others equally or more culpable in the murders will not face a death sentence; and all agreed that Mohamed's execution would cause his family to suffer grief and loss.

Mohamed's mother, twin sister, and older brother had been flown from Zanzibar by the defense to testify at the hearing.

Seven jurors felt that if Mohamed was executed, he would be seen as a martyr and his death could be exploited by others to justify future terrorist attacks. Three jurors added the mitigating factor that life in prison is a harsher punishment than death. Another mitigating factor added by nine jurors was that Mohamed's last psychological report showed that his danger of harm to others was low.

None of the jurors accepted the defense's claim that Mohamed is remorseful for the deaths, injuries, and other consequences of the bombing and would not participate in such a crime in the future.

In addition to being found guilty of murdering 11 Tanzanians in the Dar es Salaam attack, Mohamed was also convicted of destroying U.S. property, which resulted in death; of the use of a weapon of mass destruction against Americans; and of murdering two employees of the United States because of their duties.

Recruited for the operation by a member of Usama bin Laden's terrorist organization al Qaeda, Mohamed rented a truck and the house used as the bomb factory in Dar es Salaam, helped grind the TNT used to make the bomb, rode partway to the embassy with the suicide bomber, and then cleaned up the house to remove evidence after the bombing before fleeing to South Africa.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov/)
NNNN