Tuesday, June 21, 2016
By Doualy Xaykaothao
They may turn out to be the most scrutinized judicial sentences in Minnesota history.
Federal Judge Michael Davis is currently weighing the fate of nine young Somali-American Minnesotans who've either pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes tied to trying to join the ISIS terror group. No sentencing date has been set, but Davis' decisions could reverberate across the world and observers say he faces a tough task.
That's true especially in the judgments against three who were found guilty recently of multiple terror-related crimes, including conspiracy to murder abroad. Those men face life in prison.
Davis has expressed interest in prison programs intended to de-radicalize people who've been lured by ISIS propaganda and some of the men who pleaded guilty have already been evaluated to see if they qualify. But it's unclear how many Davis might send on that path.
"I suspect that for Judge Davis, this will be one of the hardest sentencings he has had to do," said Thomas Heffelfinger, a former U.S. attorney for Minnesota.
The trial remains an open wound in the Somali community. Some Somali-American leaders say they hope Davis will show compassion given comments by some of the defendants that they never really intended to travel to Syria to fight with ISIS and that their secretly recorded remarks were little more than youthful boasts.