(Sacramento Bee) Six months after a federal judge vacated the 2006 terrorism conviction against Hamid Hayat, prosecutors said Friday they will not pursue another trial against the former Lodi cherry picker.
“Due to the passage of time, the government now moves this court to dismiss, in the interest of justice, the indictments in this case,” federal prosecutors said in a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.
The decision brings to a close the controversial prosecution of Hayat, who spent 14 years of a 24-year sentence in custody until U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell found last year that his trial lawyer had provided ineffective counsel and he should be released pending a decision by the government on whether to retry him.
