US judge recommends overturning California terror conviction
Source: Associated Press
Don Thompson, Associated Pres
Updated 8:37 pm CST, Friday, January 11, 2019
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal magistrate on Friday recommended overturning the controversial 2006 conviction of a California man accused of attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and plotting an attack in the United States.
Hamid Hayat, now 36, who was then a young cherry-picker from Lodi, has served about half his 24-year sentence.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes said he likely never would have been convicted were it not for the inexperience of his defense attorney, who failed to call alibi witnesses.
"A reasonably competent attorney would have done more to investigate Hayat's alibi," Barnes said in a 116-page opinion.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/US-judge-recommends-overturning-California-terror-13527908.php
