Psychiatric Defense Likely In NY Wife Beheading ( Muslim Honor Killing )

AP ^ | Sep 18, 2009

[george76]

A man accused of beheading his wife at the television station they founded to counter stereotypes of Muslims is likely to claim emotional distress was behind the killing in hopes of avoiding a murder conviction.

Muzzammil Hassan, 45, is scheduled to be tried in January on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan. A psychiatric defense would allow jurors to find him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter, according to Hassan's attorney, who made his plans known during a pretrial conference Friday.

Muzzammil Hassan had been served with divorce papers a week before his wife's body was found stabbed and decapitated at the offices of Bridges TV in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, where the couple also lived.

The Pakistani-born Hassans started the Bridges TV network in 2004, saying they wanted to counter negative stereotypes and media portrayals of Muslims and provide programming for the growing Muslim-American population.

[Stepan12]

Second-degree murder??? That’s crazy. Obviously the wife wanted to die otherwise she wouldn’t have filed for divorce, thus this is clearly a case of suicide simply assisted by the honorable husband. Geesh, when will Americans ever learn?

Islamic Rage Boy discusses wife's beheading on "this week in global Jihad"

[Stepan12]

Back in the early 1980's, a psychologist I knew told me that by clinical standards most Arabic Muslim men could be classed as insane.

You mean such as from this report?

[SkipW]

Never mind lethal injection for this guy. Cut his freakin head off.

[aruanan]

Wow. It looks like the guy I knew was on to the same thing decades ago.