The death penalty phase of West Side Highway terrorist Sayfullo Saipov’s trial will likely delve into procedures at the most secure wing of the nation’s “supermax” prison.
Prosecutors on the case seeking the death penalty intend to argue Saipov could still pose a “future danger” from behind bars, in part because of the threat of security breaches at ADX Florence, where he’ll be jailed.
At a court hearing Friday, Saipov attorney Andrew Dalack argued prosecutors should be limited to referencing only issues that have occurred on the prison’s “H unit,” which houses terrorists and others under Special Administrative Measures, known as SAMs, by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Former unit prisoners have described being completely isolated from the world, said they were allowed just one phone call a month, and that their every move was monitored at all times.
Assistant US Attorney Amanda Houle said prosecutors intend to elicit expert testimony about a prisoner, whose last name is “Petty,” who was not jailed on the unit.
Houle was apparently referencing Ishmael Petty, a murderous bank robber convicted in 2015 of attacking three prison employees with a shank at ADX Florence.
Dalack said Saipov’s defense team is “strenuously” objecting to testimony about Petty because he wasn’t housed in the H unit at the time of the attack.
Houle added prosecutors will attempt to show jurors that inmates are regularly “stepped down” from SAMs – another point Dalack objected to, telling Judge Vernon Broderick, “That is just not true.” While there are “phases” to SAMs, Dalack said, the Attorney General, the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI would have to approve the measures be vacated.
Broderick has yet to rule on the scope of the testimony he’ll allow on the subject.
Saipov was convicted on 28 counts Thursday in Manhattan federal court for the 2017 truck attack that killed eight people.
