This is news that’s been kicking around my in-box for over a week, and since I’m going away for a couple of days, I’m trying to clean up old news. We’ve reported on this case on several occasions, most recently here on September 12th.
From Minnesota Public Radio:
Minneapolis — Mahdi Hassan Ali was found guilty of multiple counts of first degree murder today by a Hennepin County jury.
The jury found Ali guilty of killing three men during a failed robbery attempt at the Seward Market in Minneapolis last year.
The crime was the city’s first triple homicide since 1996, and shocked the Somali community.
The courtroom was packed, as it had been daily during the trial, with Somalis and other East African immigrants. Many of them are related to the slain men — a few related to the accused killer. As Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill read the first guilty verdict, one of the victims’ relatives silently and discretely pumped his right arm in celebration.
Now, besides supporting him as a refugee for the last few years, taxpayers get to support him for life behind bars. Isn’t saving the poor and downtrodden of the third world a wondrous thing!