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Sahib Lateef
AL-MOSAWI
Same day
Sahib Al-Mosawi was convicted of 1st-degree
murder of his wife and her uncle in Oklahoma City in 1992. Al-Mosawi,
who came to the United States from Iraq in 1991, was married to
Inaam Al-Nashi.
The couple had marital problems. Al-Nashi, who was
pregnant, moved into the apartment of Mohammad Al-Nashi, her uncle.
After the baby was born, Al-Mosawi went to the apartment and fatally
stabbed his wife and her uncle.
A third stabbing victim, Fatima Al-Nashi,
survived the attack and described it as an apparent domestic
dispute. Al- Mosawi was upset because his wife named her newborn
baby against his wishes.
Sahib Al-Mosawi - Scheduled Execution Date and
Time: 12/6/01 7:00PM EDT
Sahib Al-Mosawi was convicted and sentenced to
death in 1994 for the stabbing death of his wife and her uncle. The
murders occurred no more than two months after Mr. Al-Mosawi arrived
in Oklahoma City from a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Al-Mosawi has cited as mitigating evidence
his upbringing in Iraq as particularly painful, resulting in what is
often referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder.
After the early
death of his father, Mr. Al-Mosawi was left to fend for the survival
of his mother and five younger siblings in Iraq. This was a
particularly difficult time because of their status as a religious
minority, which resulted in numerous instances of persecution.
In one example, Mr. Al-Mosawi’s son was kidnaped and presumed murdered
by the Iraqi government. This led he and his family to flee to a
refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, where they resided for more than a
year. Mr. Al-Mosawi’s crime is certainly deserving of a life
sentence.
However, it would be no crime for the state of Oklahoma to
show mercy to a person who has been persecuted all his life. Let the
Governor of Oklahoma know retributive justice is not a solution to
the cycle of violence in this crime.
Friday
December 7, 2001
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - An Iraqi national who
stabbed his wife and her uncle to death in 1992 was executed
Thursday. Sahib Al-Mosawi, 53, was sentenced to death in 1994. He
did not request a clemency hearing and had no appeals pending. He
was executed by injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
He met his wife and her family at a refugee camp
in Saudi Arabia after they left Iraq in 1991 during the Persian Gulf
War. Their marriage was arranged, and the couple and her family
later moved to Oklahoma City.
They had marital problems and Inaam
Al-Nashi moved in with her uncle, Mohammad Al-Nashi. She sought a
protective order soon after the couple's son was born because Al-Mosawi
threatened her and her family in an argument over the boy's name.
Two weeks later, on Nov. 28, 1992, he came to Al-Nashi's home and
became angered that his wife was going to a party with friends. Al-Mosawi
stabbed the uncle, who was trying to make him leave. Al-Mosawi then
stabbed his wife and her sister, Fatima. She was stabbed three
times, but survived.
Al-Mosawi was the 18th prisoner executed in
Oklahoma this year. Three more condemned inmates have exhausted all
appeals, and the attorney general's office is seeking to have their
execution dates set.
Sahib Al-Mosawi, an Iraqi national scheduled for
execution this Thursday, declined a clemency hearing. He was
convicted in 1994 of the murder of his wife, Inaam Al-Nashi Al-Mosawi,
and her uncle, Mohammed Al-Nashi. The three had met in a refugee
camp in Saudi Arabia after fleeing Iraq in 1991.
After about one
year in the camp, both families were granted permission to come to
the US. The murders occurred about two months after they settled in
Oklahoma City. The appeals courts have rejected the claim that
mitigating factors, including evidence of the defendant’s depression
and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), would have led the jury
to a different decision if such evidence had been fully presented at
trial.
Sahib Al-Mosawi, hereinafter referred to as
Appellant, was tried and convicted by jury for the crimes of Murder
in the First Degree, malice aforethought, (Counts I and II) (21 O.S.1991,
§ 701.7) and Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon with Intent to
Kill (Count III) (21 O.S.1991, § 652) in Case No. CF-92-7217 in the
District Court of Oklahoma County before the Honorable Richard
Freeman, District Judge. The jury found three aggravating
circumstances as to each victim: (1) Appellant had knowingly created
a great risk of death to more than one person; (2) Appellant was a
continuing threat to society; and (3) the murders of Inaam Al-Nashi
Al-Mosawi and Mohammed Al-Nashi were especially heinous, atrocious
or cruel. The trial judge sentenced Appellant in accordance with the
jury's recommendation of death on Counts I and II and twenty (20)
years imprisonment on Count III. From these judgments and sentences,
Appellant has perfected his appeal to this Court. We affirm.
State's witness, Fatima Al-Nashi, testified that
in May of 1991, she, her uncle, Mohammed, and her sister, Inaam, met
Appellant, his daughters Saher and Lamia, and his son, Wala, who had
fled their homeland of Iraq. Both families spent nearly a year
living in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia. Soon thereafter, Mohammed
married Saher and Appellant married Inaam. In July, 1992, both
families received permission to come to the United States, where
they settled in Oklahoma City. Dr. Fakrildeen Albahadily and his
wife Zayneb Attia of Edmond, Oklahoma were the sponsor family.
Marital problems between Appellant and Inaam led
Inaam, who was pregnant at the time, to move to her Uncle Mohammed's
apartment located in the same complex as hers.
On October 11, 1992,
Inaam delivered a boy. According to the testimony of State's witness,
Josephine "Dolly" Warden, Director of Oklahoma Refugee Resettlement
Program, she notified Appellant of the birth. During Appellant's
visit to the hospital, a dispute arose over the baby's name.
Allegedly, Appellant and Inaam had agreed to name the baby after
Appellant's father. However, Inaam did otherwise.
The next day, Ms.
Warden was called to the hospital at the insistence of a nurse. Upon
her arrival, she saw Dr. Albahadily, Appellant and Oklahoma City
Police Officer Karen Maule. (Witness Fatima testified that Appellant
had threatened to kill Inaam and her family.) Ms. Warden visited
with Appellant to explain that in the State of Oklahoma, it is the
mother's right to name her baby.
Officer Maule testified that she responded to a
disturbance call at Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City. When she
arrived, she was taken to Inaam's room where Mohammed and Fatima,
along with others, were present. Officer Maule testified that Inaam
was in fear. Officer Maule then talked to security to determine a
way to have Appellant leave the hospital.
She suggested that they
have the hospital secretary type up one of the little gift forms of
a birth certificate with the name that Appellant demanded. Officer
Maule was directed to a bench outside of the Emergency Room where
Appellant was sitting. She inquired as to the name he wanted and
escorted Appellant upstairs, where he wrote out the baby's name for
the purpose of having it put on the "birth certificate." After
receiving the "birth certificate," Appellant agreed to let Officer
Maule drive him home.
As a result of the threats against her, Inaam,
with the assistance of Ms. Warden and interpreter Faruk Necati,
obtained a temporary Victim Protection Order (VPO) on November 12,
1992.
The permanent Victim Protection Order was granted on November
20, 1992. Inaam was present with Ms. Warden and interpreter Father
Adli Abraham. Appellant was also present. On November 21, 1992, Ms.
Warden was called by Fatima and asked to come to Mohammed's
apartment. When she arrived, Appellant, Inaam, Dr. Albahadily and
his wife's cousin were present in the living room. Ms. Warden
testified that she was very surprised and shocked to see Appellant
there because of the VPO. She said she looked at Inaam and told her
she (Inaam) should not be there because of the VPO. Inaam left the
room. Thereupon, Dr. Albahadily became very angry with Ms. Warden,
telling her that he had come to get the family back together and
that she had ruined everything. When Ms. Warden tried to show Dr.
Albahadily the VPO, he said angrily that it didn't mean anything and
left with both Appellant and Inaam.
On November 28, 1992, Ms. Warden visited
Mohammed's apartment for the purpose of having her daughter, who was
home on Thanksgiving break, meet Inaam, her baby and Mohammed. (Her
daughter had met Fatima on a previous occasion.)
Also present at
that time were Saher and Lamia. Ms. Warden and her daughter stayed
for approximately one-half hour. At about 5:30 that evening, Ms.
Warden retrieved her telephone messages. One was from a newly
settled family of three brothers, the Necatis, who, a week earlier,
had extended a dinner invitation to her for that evening. She
returned the call and was asked to invite Mohammed and his family to
dinner.
Ms. Warden went to Mohammed's apartment to extend the
invitation to Mohammed and Fatima. While there, Inaam asked her to
come to the bedroom. Saher was on the bed and indicated that she was
sick, but didn't know what was wrong.
While Ms. Warden was in the
bedroom, she saw Appellant come in carrying the baby. He came into
the bedroom to show her the baby. As she was leaving, Ms. Warden
advised Mohammed that maybe he should not go to the dinner because
Saher was ill. She tried to persuade Fatima to come, but she
declined. Ms. Warden left.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, Fatima
arrived at Ms. Warden's apartment to say she had changed her mind
about going to the dinner party. Fatima said she needed to change
clothes, so Ms. Warden, showing her on the clock what it meant, told
her to be back by 6:45 p.m.
Later, when Ms. Warden's daughter became
anxious about the time getting late, Ms. Warden told her that she
told Fatima to be there at 6:45. Ms. Warden's daughter said, "[b]ut
it's 6:38." At that exact moment, there was a knock on the door.
When Ms. Warden opened the door, Fatima was standing there shocked
and bleeding and saying to her, "Inaam, Mohammed, Al-Mosawi (Appellant)",
and pointed to her stomach. Ms. Warden interpreted Fatima to mean
that Appellant had stabbed her, Mohammed and Inaam.
According to Fatima, Inaam asked Appellant if she
could go to the dinner party. Appellant said she could not go and
became angry. He left and went to his apartment to get Inaam's and
the baby's clothes, with the intent of ending the relationship.
When
Appellant returned, he appeared upset and called Inaam and Fatima "street
girls" and "bitches." Mohammed asked Appellant to leave. Appellant
pulled a knife from his jacket and stabbed Mohammed in the chest.
When Inaam attempted to help Mohammed, Appellant grabbed her and
stabbed her in the stomach. Mohammed yelled for Fatima to help Inaam.
Fatima, in the process of trying to get the knife from Appellant's
hand, was stabbed in the stomach, hand and left side by Appellant.
Fatima made her way from the apartment to Ms. Warden's apartment.
According to witness Mike Walker, who was in Pat
McClemore's garage next to the apartment complex, they heard a lady
screaming for help. They left the garage, went to the fence and
looked over. He saw three people running up the alley, a woman and
two men--one on each side of her.
Mr. Walker went around the fence
and observed the man on the woman's left hitting her about the head
and shoulder. After the last blow, the woman fell. The two men
continued running around the building out of his sight.
While
standing by Inaam's body waiting for help, Mr. Walker saw Appellant
walking back towards them. Appellant had a jacket wrapped around his
hand. When Appellant walked off, Mr. Walker followed him until he
saw the police. Mr. Walker told the police the direction where
Appellant was going. Mr. Walker could not tell if Appellant was the
man on the left or right of Inaam.
Celena Walker testified that she was looking out
her bedroom window when she saw a man, approximately five-six or
five-seven in height, wearing a white button-downed shirt and dark
pants. He was behind a woman with his left arm around her neck.
The
woman was struggling and screaming. Ms. Walker saw something "shiny"
in his right hand. She saw him make a slicing motion around her neck
area. The witness turned away from the window and when she looked
back out, the woman was on the ground with the man standing over her.
She saw a great deal of blood coming from the woman. Then the man
walked off in a southerly direction.
Cheryl Walker, Celena Walker's mother, testified
similarly to her daughter. She described the man as wearing dark
brown slacks, dark brown jacket and white shirt. She went to Inaam
and attempted to help her.
She observed Appellant on two occasions
after he walked away from Inaam. She described him as just wandering
around, twice walking over to the victim, looking at her and walking
back away. She noticed that he had something that looked like a
knife in his hand which he had covered with his jacket.
Appellant testified that after he delivered
Inaam's and the baby's clothes, Mohammed and Fatima confronted him
with knives. When Mohammed tried to stab him, Inaam came between
them and was stabbed in the stomach by Mohammed.
Appellant said he
never saw Fatima being stabbed because she was behind him. When
Inaam ran outside of the apartment, he caught up with her and picked
her up to carry her. When Inaam saw Mohammed behind them in pursuit,
she told Appellant to put her down and run to save himself.
Appellant put her down in an upright position. As he was running, he
looked back and saw Mohammed holding Inaam from behind. Then he saw
Inaam fall to the ground. Mohammed ran toward him, went back, looked
at Inaam and then went to his car. Appellant was later arrested when
he returned to his apartment.
Appellant admitted he was wearing a white shirt
and jacket that evening. He denied having wrapped the jacket around
his hand. He also testified that he was wearing jeans that evening.