A defendant convicted of plotting to behead conservative author, commentator and activist Pamela Geller has been given two additional years behind bars in a resentencing.
Geller herself wrote about the development in the case involving Daoud Wright.
He originally was convicted in 2017 on multiple charges regarding an Islamic plot to behead Geller, with the jury reaching its verdicts in just hours.
But one of those charges, conspiring to support a terrorist organization, was later overturned on appeal. Justice David J. Barron claimed Wright “could have been simply ‘role-playing with respect to following ISIS’s direction.'”
Back for resentencing, since the original term of 28 years was overturned, he was sentenced to 30 years, Geller’s report confirmed.
“Daoud Wright is a former Islamic State (ISIS) operative in Boston who was the ringleader of a plot to behead me. In December 2017, he was found guilty on five counts in this terrorist plot against me, which involved Wright maintaining close contact with and even financing a major American ISIS leader, Zulfi Hoxha,” she wrote in a blog statement.
“Back when Wright was convicted, the jury didn’t think Wright was just ‘role-playing.’ They brought the verdict in swiftly: according to WBUR, they ‘reached five verdicts in six hours.’ Acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said: ‘Mr. Wright is a terrorist, an ISIS supporter and recruiter who intended to wage war against the United States by beheading people and killing Americans,'” her report said.
She continued, “Islamic State’s 2015 instructional manual for its Western supporters, ‘How to Survive in the West,’ includes references to video games as a method of training to join the group. More importantly, it may have brought together Wright and Hoxha, who unlike Wright successfully followed through on his intentions to support the Islamic State using violence… During Wright’s trial, prosecutors argued that he used several video games, including Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and other titles to ‘virtually prepare’ for jihad. His defense attorneys, however, painted Wright, who weighed over 400 pounds at the time of the conspiracy, as a ‘fat, failed loser’ who used video games as a substitute for real-life violent activity, according to the trial transcript. Unfortunately, one can be both a gamer who veers towards violence and weigh in at 400 pounds of loneliness and isolation…..”
An online news report said Wright was given 30 years, overturning a 28-year term, on his remaining convictions of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism.
Wright, from near Boston, already has served about five years for conspiring to kill Geller, who organized a 2015 Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest that year in Garland, Texas.
That event ended in gunfire, with two Muslim shooters shot to death by police.
Prosecutors had wanted Wright sentenced to life, as he is “extremely dangerous,” but his lawyers insisted he be given only 14 years.
They wanted special treatment for him, explaining his life behind bars puts his life at risk because of COVID-19.
Geller is president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, publisher of The Geller Report and author of multiple works.
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