Feds rest death penalty case against West Side bike path terrorist Sayfullo Saipov
Federal prosecutors rested their death penalty case Wednesday against Sayfullo Saipov, the radical Islamic terrorist who killed eight people on a lower Manhattan bike path.
The government wrapped up its case in Manhattan Federal Court after calling several family members of the people Saipov fatally mowed down on a West Side bike path in an ISIS-inspired truck attack on Oct. 31, 2017.
Saipov’s lawyers called Chris Synsvoll, a supervising attorney for the federal Bureau of Prisons as their first witness. They questioned him about ADX Florence in Colorado, the “supermax” prison, which is referred to as the Alcatraz of the Rockies because of its isolated location. Inmates there include Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Saipov will be sent to the prison if one juror votes against executing him.
Synsvoll said there are eight layers of security preceding the H unit at the prison, where Saipov would live out his days, and it houses 25 inmates.
Prisoners in the block stay in their cells for 23 hours a day and can progress to different phases. During the first phase, inmates get two personal calls a month lasting 15 minutes and three showers a week. All calls are monitored.
He said inmates are not allowed to touch family members during visits.
“Every inmate at the ADX is non-contact,” Synsvoll said.
Synsvoll said good behavior could bump inmates up to phase two when they get an extra phone call a month and five showers a week.
“If you need to use the restroom, you can use the restroom at any time. We do limit the flushes,” Synsvoll said, adding prisoners are permitted two flushes an hour.
There is no limit to how long people stay in the H block, Synsvoll testified, and the attorney general or their designee is the only official with the power to remove someone from that status.
In seeking the death penalty, prosecutors have partially argued that Saipov remains too much of a threat behind bars to remain alive.
Synsvoll testified that no inmates have seriously injured a corrections officer, and none have escaped. Saipov’s lawyer asked the prison official if it was safe to say that the H unit has successfully held people convicted of terrorism.
“Yes,” Synsvoll said.
Saipov, 35, was convicted of 28 murder and terrorism charges on Jan. 26. He will be the first federal defendant in Manhattan sentenced to death since 1954 if the jury chooses to side with prosecutors.
