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Deadlocked Jury Halts Terror Case

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By KIRK SEMPLE, The New York Times

Published: December 14, 2007

MIAMI - One of seven indigent men charged with plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad was acquitted Thursday, and a mistrial was declared in the prosecution of the six others after the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked.

The outcome was a significant defeat for the Bush administration, which had described the case as a major crackdown on homegrown terrorists.

Officials acknowledged the defendants, known as the Liberty City Seven for the depressed section of Miami where they frequently gathered in a rundown warehouse, never acquired weapons or equipment and posed no immediate threat. But, officials said, the case underscored a need for pre-emptive terrorism prosecutions.

In acquitting Lyglenson Lemorin, 32, a Haitian immigrant who was cast by the prosecution as a junior foot soldier in the group, jurors were compelled by evidence that suggested he had tried "to distance himself" from the others, Jeff Agron, jury foreman, said outside the courthouse.

Lemorin had split with the group's leader, Narseal Batiste, 33, and moved to Atlanta months before the seven were arrested last year, according to The Associated Press.

As for the six defendants on whom the jury deadlocked, the U.S. attorney's office said it would retry them. The judge, Joan A. Lenard, ordered jury selection for the retrial to begin Jan. 7 and barred prosecution and defense attorneys from discussing Thursday's outcome with reporters.

The defendants - five Americans and two Haitians - worked in a small construction business owned by Batiste and were members of the Moorish Science Temple, a sect that blends Islam, Christianity and Judaism and does not recognize the authority of the U.S. government. The were charged with planning to join forces with al-Qaida to blow up the Chicago skyscraper and several federal buildings a government overthrow attempt.

The group came under government surveillance in the fall of 2005 when a Yemeni man contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to report suspicious activity by the men and, he said, a request by them that he help them contact al-Qaida.

Agron, the jury foreman, who described himself as an educator at a synagogue, said the case's complexity, with seven defendants each facing four conspiracy counts, had made for "tough" deliberations.

"People have different takes on what they saw, on what was said and what was meant," he said.

Agron declined to detail how the jurors had split on each count and each defendant. But he said they thought the weakest count was the charge the defendants had conspired to wage war against the United States.

The other charges were conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, conspiracy to destroy federal buildings and conspiracy to provide material support for the destruction of federal buildings.

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