MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

I can’t make this stuff up. And I just so happen to agree with the government’s position in this case. Apparently, President Obama didn’t get involved. It’s actually reasonable …

Update: Life …

By Tresa Baldas – “DETROIT — Confessed underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is challenging his mandatory life in prison sentence, arguing in court documents filed Monday that a life sentence is ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ and unconstitutional.

Abdulmutallab, who is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, is facing a mandatory life in prison sentence after pleading guilty in October to trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner carrying nearly 300 people with a bomb hidden in his underwear. He pleaded guilty to numerous criminal charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, and conspiracy to commit terrorism.

The plot was foiled when his bomb malfunctioned.

‘Given the circumstances and what did NOT occur in the instant matter it is fair to say that the mandatory minimum sentence of life is excessive and grossly disproportionate to the conduct,’ Abdulmutallab wrote in court documents Monday. ‘Aside from the defendant no passengers suffered any serious injuries and there were no casualties.’

The government strongly disagrees, and has asked U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds to give him the maximum punishment.

‘Defendant is an unrepentant, would-be mass murderer, who views his crimes as divinely inspired and blessed, and who views himself as under a continuing obligation to carry out such crimes,’ prosecutors wrote Friday in a sentencing memo. ‘He attempted to murder 289 individuals, no sentence other than life. … Could possibly reflect the seriousness of defendant’s conduct.'” Read more.