Family of truck terrorist testify in his defense at NYC death penalty trial The penalty phase of a trial underway since January hurtled toward its end with emotional testimony from the mother and the youngest sister of the Uzbek man convicted of a deadly 2017 truck attack in Manhattan.

(Courthouse News) Two family members of Sayfullo Saipov spoke in his defense Wednesday, giving jurors a tearful composite of the man they knew before he became radicalized by the Islamic State group and went on to kill eight people as they spent the morning of Halloween 2017 on the bike path along New York City’s West Side Highway.

The same federal jury that convicted Saipov in January of 28 criminal counts will begin deliberations next week on whether he should be sentenced to death, an extraordinarily uncommon punishment in a state that hasn’t had an execution in 60 years.

Saipov, 35, had a rented flatbed truck from Home Depot to carry out his high-speed attack along the Hudson River five years ago, mowing down pedestrians and cycling tourists from Belgium, Argentina and across the United States before crashing into the side of a school bus.

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