Here is a rare and refreshing instance in which lawyerly attempts to aid a jihadi in escaping the consequences of his actions backfires, and results in justice being more, not less, properly served. It was bad enough that Wright’s fellow would-be jihad murderer, Nicholas Rovinski, was recently granted a “compassionate release.” As always, there is no compassion for the intended victim. It is hard not to wonder if Rovinski would have been freed if his intended victim had been some iconic figure on the Left, such as Linda Sarsour, rather than a fighter for freedom, Pamela Geller. I rather suspect not. And so I was fully prepared, as Wright was about to be resentenced, for him to be freed as well, or at least have his sentence sharply reduced. But in this case, a pleasant surprise.
“Man gets 30 years in 2nd sentencing for beheading plot,” Associated Press, September 28, 2020 (thanks to Henry):
BOSTON (AP) – A man convicted of leading a plot to behead blogger Pamela Geller on behalf of the Islamic State group will serve even longer behind bars after he was sentenced for a second time Monday and ordered to 30 years in prison.
David Daoud Wright was originally sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2017 but was ordered to be sentenced again by a different Boston federal court judge after an appeals court last year overturned one of his convictions. Wright remains convicted of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries and other crimes.
Wright, who´s from Everett, just north of Boston, has already served about five years for conspiring to kill Geller, who organized a 2015 Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest that year in Garland, Texas, that ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen shot to death by police. The beheading plot against Geller was never carried out.
Days later, Wright´s uncle, Ussamah Rahim, told Wright in a phone call that he couldn´t wait to attack Geller and decided instead to go after “those boys in blue.” Hours later, Rahim was approached by officers in a Boston parking lot and was fatally shot after he pulled out a knife and moved toward them, officials say.
Prosecutors had once again urged the judge to send Wright away for life, calling him in court documents “extremely dangerous” and “a serious threat to the United States.”
Wright’s lawyers had asked for a sentence of 14 years. They argued in their brief to the judge that, among other things, the coronavirus pandemic puts his life at risk behind bars. They said Wright “continues to renounce ISIS and radicalism” and “seeks to educate others about the destructiveness of radicalism.”…
Wright took the stand at his trial and insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone. He told jurors that he didn´t actually support the terror group and said his conversations about violence were just “trash talk” fueled by a desperate desire for attention.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year tossed his conviction of the charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization….