JURIST - Paper Chase: Jury deadlock in California terror case prompts mistrial declaration

[JURIST] US District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. [official profile] on Tuesday declared a mistrial in the case of Umer Hayat, who is accused of lying to the FBI about his son's alleged terrorism-related activities, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict after almost two weeks of deliberations. Hayat's son, Hamid, is also on trial on related charges [indictment, PDF] and the jury in Hamid's case is still deliberating. In addition to being charged with lying to US law enforcement agents about attending terrorist training camps in Pakistan, Hamid is also accused of providing material support to terrorists.

Defense attorneys in the case had asked to review evidence gathered by the National Security Agency [official website] in the three-year investigation of the Hayats and other members of the Pakistani community in Lodi, California. The lawyers had hoped to review the NSA records to determine whether evidence had been gathered using controversial warrantless domestic wiretaps [JURIST news archive], but Burrell denied the request [JURIST report]. AP has more.

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