CIA Slayings Suspect Said Brain-Damaged

A Pakistani charged with killing two CIA employees in a shooting rampage outside the spy agency’s headquarters has brain damage, his lawyer said Monday as jury selection began.

Mir Aimal Kasi, who was captured in Pakistan in June, is charged with murder in the 1993 shootings and could get the death penalty.

Both sides questioned prospective jurors at length about their opinions of the death penalty and their knowledge of the case.

Kasi, 33, pleaded not guilty Monday.

Defense attorney Richard Goemann told prospective jurors that Kasi’s mental health will be an issue in the trial.

“We also anticipate there will be evidence of a physical problem of brain damage,” Goemann said. He did not elaborate.

Two Central Intelligence Agency employees were killed and three other people were hurt in the attack. Kasi told the FBI he shot into cars in morning traffic outside the CIA’s Langley headquarters “to teach a lesson to the United States government,” prosecutors said last week.

Goemann asked potential jurors if they have any religious or ethnic biases that could affect the case. Kasi is a Muslim.

Two prospective jurors were dismissed after saying they had a close friend or relative at the CIA and had already formed opinions in the case.

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Monday’s session was held under tight security. Concrete traffic barriers were placed around the courthouse for the trial.

Authorities initially spelled the defendant’s name “Kansi,” but prosecutors are using the version of his name in his school records.