NEW YORK -- An Islamic extremist who killed eight people with a speeding truck in a 2017 rampage on a popular New York City bike path was convicted Thursday of federal crimes and could face the death penalty.
Sayfullo Saipov bowed his head as he heard the verdict in a Manhattan courtroom just a few blocks from where the attack ended. Prosecutors said the Halloween rampage was inspired by his reverence for the Islamic State militant group.
The dozen jurors deliberated for about seven hours over two days before convicting Saipov, 34, of 28 counts of crimes that include murder in aid of racketeering and supporting a foreign terrorist organization. Jurors will return to court no earlier than Feb. 6 to hear more evidence to help them decide whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.
A death sentence for Saipov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, would be an extreme rarity in New York. The state no longer has capital punishment and the last state execution was in 1963. A federal jury in New York has not rendered a death sentence that withstood legal appeals in decades, with the last execution in 1954.
Even before the trial, there was no doubt Saipov was a killer.
His lawyers conceded to the jury that he rented a pickup truck near his New Jersey home, steered it onto the path along the Hudson River and mowed down bicyclists for blocks before crashing into a school bus near the World Trade Center.
He emerged from his truck yelling "God is great," in Arabic, with pellet and paintball guns in his hands before he was shot by a police officer who thought they were real firearms.
The vehicle attack killed a woman visiting from Belgium with her family, five friends from Argentina and two Americans. It left others with permanent injuries, including a woman who lost her legs.
"His actions were senseless, horrific, and there's no justification for them," defense attorney David Patton told the jury during the trial.
The defense asked jurors to acquit Saipov of racketeering charges, saying he intended to die a martyr and was not conspiring with the Islamic State organization, despite voluminous amounts of propaganda from the group found on his electronic devices and at his home.
Saipov did not testify at his trial.
He sat quietly each day, unlike at a 2019 pretrial hearing where he insisted on questioning the judge about why he should be judged for eight deaths when "thousands and thousands of Muslims are dying all over the world."
Saipov moved legally to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010 and lived in Ohio and Florida before joining his family in Paterson, New Jersey.
Prosecutors said Saipov attacked civilians to impress the Islamic State group so he could become a member and appeared pleased with his work, smiling when he spoke to an FBI agent afterward.
Among those testifying were several family members from Belgium who were injured in the attack. Aristide Melissas, a father, said he had challenged family members to race their bikes to the World Trade Center, with the loser paying for ice cream. When he was struck by Saipov's truck, his skull was fractured. He underwent brain surgery.
His wife, Marion Van Reeth, spoke of waking up in a hospital to learn her legs had been amputated.
Saipov's lawyers have said the death penalty process was irreparably tainted by former President Donald Trump, who tweeted a day after the attack that Saipov "SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!"
President Joe Biden subsequently instituted a moratorium on executions for federal crimes.
Until Saipov's trial, Biden's Justice Department, under Attorney General Merrick Garland, had not launched any new attempt to obtain the death penalty in a federal case. But Garland has allowed U.S. prosecutors to continue advocating for capital punishment in cases inherited from previous administrations.
FILE - A law enforcement officer walks by a crime scene Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, the day after a driver mowed down people on a riverfront bike path near the World Trade Center in New York. Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight in a New York bike path attack was convicted of federal crimes on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, and could face the death penalty. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - A group pauses, with some in prayer, at a makeshift memorial on a New York City bike path, on Nov. 4, 2017, that that honors victims of an attack who were stuck and killed by a rental truck driven by indicted suspect Sayfullo Saipov. Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight in a New York bike path attack was convicted of federal crimes on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, and could face the death penalty. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
In this courtroom sketch, in federal court in New York, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, Sayfullo Saipov, left, listens to the verdict in his trial. Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight in a New York bike path attack was convicted of federal crimes, Thursday, Jan. 26 2023, and could face the death penalty. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)
In this courtroom sketch, in federal court in New York, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, United States District Judge Vernon Broderick addresses the jury in response to one of their notes during Sayfullo Saipov deliberations. Courtroom Deputy Leyni Rodriguez is seated at lower left. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)
FILE- A New York City police officer stands next to a body covered under a white sheet near a mangled bicycle along a bike path in New York on Oct. 31, 2017. Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight in a New York bike path attack was convicted of federal crimes on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, and could face the death penalty. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE - This undated file photo provided by the St. Charles County Department of Corrections in St. Charles, Mo., shows Sayfullo Saipov. Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight in a New York bike path attack was convicted of federal crimes on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, and could face the death penalty. (St. Charles County, Mo., Department of Corrections/KMOV via AP, File)
FILE - A paramedic looks at a body covered under a white sheet along a bike path, Oct. 31, 2017, in New York. Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight in a New York bike path attack was convicted of federal crimes on Thursday, Jan. 26 2023, and could face the death penalty. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)