Black muslim murdering terrorist.
Posted on 01/22/2010 9:26:33 AM PST by DCBryan1
Suspect in GI killing claims al-Qaida ties
Letter to judge seeks plea shift to guilty
JOHN LYNCH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
The Memphis man accused in a deadly attack at a Little Rock military recruiting office claims in a recent letter to the presiding judge in the case that he wants to plead guilty to capital murder and that he is a member of a Yemen-based affiliate of al-Qaida.
Defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson called the letter by 24-year-old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad “inappropriate,” saying the writing complicates Muhammad’s defense.
“I feel like I’m the only one with Mr. Muhammad’s best interests at heart,” Ferguson said Thursday.
It wasn’t clear Thursday whether Muhammad was asking to be put to death, the penalty that prosecutors are seeking. A copy of the letter wasn’t immediately available. Ferguson said he received his copy over the weekend from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright’s office.
Ferguson said he was concerned that Muhammad will be writing more letters. Prosecutors have revealed in court filings that he’s written to them as well as the FBI. “I’m afraid my client is go- ing to get more prolific with his writings,” he said.
Prosecutors could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
Arkansas law does not allow a defendant to plead guilty to capital murder, Ferguson said. Muhammad had pleaded innocent.
Muhammad is accused of killing one soldier and wounding another at a west Little Rock recruiting office.
In the letter to the judge, first reported by The New York Times, Muhammad calls the shooting “a Jihadi attack” out of revenge for the killing of Muslims by U.S. troops. He made the same claim in jailhouse interviews with reporters shortly after his June arrest but didn’t claim to have al-Qaida ties at that time. Those interviews, conducted after another judge imposed a gag order, led to Muhammad losing most of his telephone privileges in jail.
“I wasn’t insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this Act,” Muhammad wrote, according to the Times. The attack, which he said did not go as planned, was “justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religion. Jihad — to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims.”
Muhammad’s father, Melvin Bledsoe, in an interview with the Times, disputed his son’s claim of terrorist ties, saying the letter is his son’s misguided effort to become a martyr.
Ferguson’s fight to get state funding for Muhammad’s defense also entered a new chapter Thursday as Wright rejected a request from the state Public Defender Commission to reconsider his order that the agency pay for Muhammad’s capital-murder defense expenses.
Wright also put his oral Jan. 11 order in writing on Thursday, telling the commission to pay “reasonable and necessary” defense costs. Muhammad, a Muslim convert, is without the personal means to pay for expenses, according to the judge’s ruling, which makes him indigent under Arkansas Code Annotated 16-87-212, the statute that defines the commission. Services can include expert witnesses and investigators, the ruling states.
Ferguson’s legal fees are being paid by Muhammad’s parents, but their ability to fund their son’s legal representation has no bearing on Muhammad’s ability to pay defense costs, the judge has stated. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states must pay the costs of indigent defendants, and that decision has been written into Arkansas law.
The commission Wednesday petitioned Wright to rethink his decision, with executive director Didi Sallings arguing that state law intends that poor defendants can only qualify for state aid when they are represented by commission-appointed attorneys. There’s no specific prohibition in Arkansas law to retained counsel receiving state funds, but Sallings argued that the General Assembly’s intent is clear in the statute that only commission-appointed lawyers are entitled to public funds.
The supreme courts in four other states with similar public-defender laws have ruled that hired attorneys aren’t entitled to public funds, she argued. The judge’s ruling also opens the commission to potentially budget-breaking demands for money in other cases, Sallings warned.
On Thursday, Sallings said the next step is for Ferguson to submit a funding request, which she will deny. Either her refusal will result in a contempt order from Wright, which will allow her to appeal his ruling, or the judge can agree to stay the ruling so the commission can ask the Arkansas Supreme Court for a decision.
Ferguson has said he needs at most $30,000, and the judge has told him to be as specific as possible with his request. With the judge’s ruling on Thursday, Ferguson said he plans to make his request within the next two weeks.
“I haven’t seen the ruling, but I should be moving forward in the near future,” he said, declining to discuss the specifics of how much he will seek or what he will use the funds for.
Muhammad, charged with capital murder, attempted capital murder and 10 counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm, is scheduled to stand trial in about 4 1 /2 months, but that June date, just after the anniversary of the shootings, could be delayed by as much as a year while the commission appeals Wright’s ruling.
Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville was wounded and Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway was killed June 1 in a hail of gunfire as they were taking a smoke break outside the Army-Navy Career Center in west Little Rock.
Muhammad, born Carlos Leon Bledsoe, was arrested 12 minutes after the shooting in a black pickup on Interstate 630. Arresting officers found a pistol, two rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the truck. Police said Muhammad admitted the attack and told them he would have killed more soldiers if he had had the opportunity.
Muhammad moved to Little Rock in January 2009 after being deported from Yemen, where he was also imprisoned for several months.
Black muslim murdering terrorist.
Lets see if the MSM picks this little tid-bit up.
They barely covered the shooting in the first place.
This is Braking News. IMHO
Lawyer Fergason is a DUI Attorney......
BUMP...BUMP...BUMP!
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