Interesting defense tactic...patriotism.....backup defense is: he dismembered the victim's body in an act of self-defense. As you're well aware, I'm no attorney, but I don't think it'll fly.
Defense lawyer says patriotism was a motive in slaying of Afghan-American filmmaker
The Associated Press
1/24/02 9:19 AM
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) -- A film producer accused of stabbing an Afghan-American filmmaker to death was motivated in part by the filmmaker's criticism of the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks, a defense lawyer said.
Nathan Powell, 38, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of second-degree murder and evidence tampering in the Oct. 3 slaying of Jawed Wassel, 42.
Powell, the primary investor in Wassel's film "FireDancer," allegedly killed the filmmaker and dismembered his body with a hacksaw, placing his head in his refrigerator.
Police said they pulled over Powell's van the day after the slaying because he was driving erratically, and found body parts, a shovel and hacksaw blades.
Police said Powell killed Wassel during an argument over how to divide earnings from the film, just as it was opening.
But defense attorney Thomas F. Liotti said Powell was angered when Wassel blamed the United States for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Powell was schizophrenic and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following the attacks, Liotti said. He also said Powell acted in self-defense after Wassel lifted a machete during their argument.
Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Fred Klein called the defense an "insult" to the families of those who died in the attacks. Prosecutors also said Wassel was a loyal American who helped the FBI by giving information on Afghanistan.
Wassel spent six years working on "FireDancer," his autobiographical story of an Afghan youth who eventually leaves his village and settles in New York.
Wassel was smuggled out of Afghanistan by his mother after the Soviet invasion of 1979, living in Pakistan, Germany and France before coming to New York.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attack, Wassel went around the city filming the various victims' memorials for a documentary titled "New York Shrines." |
