Anger Toward Arabs Delays 2 Murder Trials

An Orange County judge Monday postponed indefinitely the murder trial of an Egyptian immigrant after nearly 20 prospective jurors said they were so angry about last week’s terrorist attacks that they could not be fair to an Arab defendant.

The decision underscores how strong emotions over the attacks could affect the U.S. court system. Also Monday, an Atlanta judge postponed the murder trial of a Muslim cleric because of anti-Islamic sentiment.

The Orange County case involves John Ghobrial, a one-armed panhandler accused of molesting and dismembering a 12-year-old La Habra boy in 1998. Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon initially rejected defense requests for a delay in the wake of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks but changed his mind after listening to members of the jury pool.

One prospective panelist said he knew someone whose son is among the 5,422 missing at the World Trade Center. Another said her brother-in-law is in New York searching for survivors. Some expressed hostility toward Ghobrial.

“He is Egyptian. What . . . is he doing here?” asked Spiro Lambros, a prospective juror who said he would have trouble being fair to the defendant. “Given the events, it would have been a very bad time to proceed.”

Even those in the pool who said they could be fair expressed doubts that an impartial jury could be selected at this point.

“I think it’s unfortunate, but I can see how people could say that [they’d be biased] with what happened on the 11th,” pool member Cory Smith said. “I think I’d still give him a fair trial. But as those people were getting up and saying they’d be biased, you got a feel for what was going to happen.”

Ghobrial, 31, allegedly molested and killed Juan Delgado, cutting his body into pieces with a butcher knife. Parts of the boy’s body were found encased in buckets of wet concrete strewn about Ghobrial’s neighborhood.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent initially opposed a trial delay, pointing out that Ghobrial is a Christian who said he had been persecuted by Muslims in his homeland. But after hearing the jury pool Monday, he acknowledged to the judge that a postponement was warranted.

“I am frankly shocked at the number of people [expressing bias]. I am disappointed in the jury pool,” Brent told the judge.

About one-fourth of the prospective jurors indicated some bias against Ghobrial, leaving just 66 other prospective panelists--an unusually small number for a death penalty case.

In Atlanta on Monday, a judge postponed the high-profile murder trial of Muslim cleric Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, who is accused of killing a deputy sheriff.

Defense attorneys cited growing sentiments against Islam, including attacks on Muslims and mosques throughout the country, as a reason to delay the trial until January.

“It’s just so unprecedented and unknowable what the prejudice would be against a Muslim going into a serious case,” said Al-Amin’s attorney, Jack Martin. “What the future holds we do not know. But we do know that now is not the time to be trying the case.”

It remained unclear when Ghobrial will be brought back to trial. The judge said he would hold a hearing this month to try to select a new trial date.

Because the attacks had a nationwide effect, it would not make sense to move the trial to another part of the country, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

“We’d like to think that the feelings will abate, but I don’t know if they’ll escalate if we go into military action. So I think it’s open-ended as to when this case will continue.”

Brent, the Orange County prosecutor, said the delay left him with mixed emotions. He spent more than two years preparing the case for trial.

“I’m disappointed--but I wasn’t in the World Trade Center. I didn’t lose my life,” Brent said. “It absolutely gives perspective.”