(AP) About 200 potential jurors for the trial of a man charged with killing eight people on a New York City bike path in a terror attack filled out questionnaires Thursday posing questions about the death penalty in a case in which the U.S. Justice Department still has not indicated if it will seek death if there is a conviction.
The questionnaires handed to people sworn in Thursday in Manhattan federal court will be used to help choose 12 jurors and six alternates for the Oct. 11 trial of Sayfullo Saipov.
Saipov, who has pleaded not guilty, was charged in the Oct. 31, 2017, attack after he emerged from a truck that struck numerous pedestrians with a pellet gun and a paintball gun and shouted an Arabic phrase, “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is Great.” He was shot by a police officer and arrested at the scene along the West Side Highway.
