A US federal prosecutor has urged a New York jury to sentence Sayfullo Saipov to death as the penalty phase of his trial began, saying his execution would be the only just punishment after he killed eight people in his 2017 attack on a Manhattan bike path.
It marked the first time jurors have been asked to vote for the federal death penalty since President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in January 2021 after promising voters he would abolish the punishment.
Defence lawyers for the Uzbek immigrant on Monday called the death penalty barbaric, and urged the jurors to vote instead for life in prison for Saipov, who mowed down people with a rental truck on October 31, 2017.
The death penalty is something New Yorkers are rarely asked to consider. The state's death penalty was found unconstitutional in 2004, and federal capital cases are infrequent.
Prosecutors said Saipov deserved to be executed because he killed eight people and attempted to kill 18 more in a carefully planned attack inspired by the militant group Islamic State, which the United States has designated a terrorist organisation.
They also said killing Saipov was warranted because he has shown no remorse, and because he still posed a threat even in prison.
"He's proud of what he's done," Assistant US Attorney Amanda Houle said to jurors in the government's opening statement in the US District Court in Manhattan.
The trial's penalty phase is due to last several weeks, with the government calling multiple survivors and victims' relatives to testify about the harm Saipov has caused them.
Saipov's victims included tourists from Argentina and Belgium, both countries that have abolished the death penalty.
The same jurors found Saipov guilty last month of all 28 charges he faced, including murder and attempted murder in order to become a member of Islamic State.
Saipov, who admitted to the attack without remorse, had offered as his defence only that he had intended to die a martyr that day, not to join Islamic State as charged.