Washington, Oct 31: Rejecting claims of insanity, a jury convicted the man, who killed Indian immigrant Balbir Singh Sodhi after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, of first-degree murder. Frank Silva Roque, who assumed the turbaned Sodhi to be an Arab terrorist and gunned down the Sikh immigrant outside his petrol pump on September 15, 2001, could get a death penalty for the murder. The jury, which began the hearing late Monday in Arizona, also found Roque guilty of attempted murder, drive-by shooting and endangerment for two more racially motivated attacks. Roque`s lawyers argued that he was insane at the time of the shooting and suffered from mental illness his entire life. The defence lawyers contended that Roque did not start using racial slurs until after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Prosecutor Vince Imbordino argued that Roque was motivated by anger and hatred following the terrorist attacks, not insanity. He noted that Roque had practiced shooting and reloading before killing Sodhi in Arizona. After killing Sodhi, Roque allegedly shot at another gas station, where the clerk was a man of Lebanese descent, and later opened fire at the home of an Afghan family. No one else was hurt in these incidents. After Roque`s conviction yesterday, Sodhi`s brother Lakhwinder Singh Sodhi said, "the verdict sent a message about hate crimes." "America wants justice. We showed the world we can`t have hate crimes in our community," he said. A defence psychiatrist said Roque suffered from reactive psychosis and depression and could not tell right from wrong. A court-appointed psychiatrist testified that Roque probably did hear voices but could understand the wrongfulness of his actions. Bureau Report