Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

Court Rules Terror Law Doesn’t Apply to Girl’s Killer By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A New York State antiterrorism law was misapplied to a 2007 gang shooting in the Bronx, an appeals court said in a ruling that could shorten a convicted killer’s prison time. The ruling does not overturn the conviction of Edgar Morales, who killed a 10-year-old girl who was a bystander, but does lessen its severity. Mr. Morales, now serving 40 years to life in prison, will be resentenced and will no longer be eligible for a life term. The decision could also limit similar uses of the 2001 antiterrorism law. Mr. Morales’s case “falls within the category of ordinary street crime, not terrorism,” a panel of State Supreme Court Appellate Division judges wrote in the ruling, issued on Tuesday. Mr. Morales was pleased that the court had found his case did not fit under the antiterrorism law, said one of his lawyers, Catherine M. Amirfar. “He felt vindicated because it was such a blow to him, and his family, to be labeled a terrorist,” she said Wednesday. The Bronx district attorney’s office said it was reviewing the ruling. Mr. Morales’s case was apparently the first, according to the appeals court, brought under a part of the antiterrorism law that says some crimes can be considered terrorism if they’re intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population.” The measure was passed days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Read more at www.nytimes.com

 

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