ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — An Islamic State group member was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for aiding the terrorist organization that took credit for a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 160 Afghans at the Kabul airport five years ago during the American military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.
A federal jury in Virginia had convicted Mohammad Sharifullah in April of providing material support to the IS affiliate known as ISIS-K. But jurors could not agree whether he bore some responsibility for the airport bombing on Aug. 26, 2021.
U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation at the airport when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an entry point known as Abbey Gate. Sharifullah’s role in the attack was scouting a route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, prosecutors said.
Sharifullah received the maximum sentence for his one-count conviction in an international terrorism case that President Donald Trump heralded last year during a speech to a joint session of Congress.
Sharifullah did not testify at his trial and declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga imposed the sentence. The judge said the defendant was a “dedicated terrorist” who expressed no remorse for the “unfathomable” grief and suffering that he had caused.
Trenga heard victim impact statements from several parents of U.S. service members. From a podium only a few feet from where Sharifullah sat, they took turns paying tribute to their children's sacrifices and describing how the attack has shattered their families.
Mark Schmitz of Missouri asked Sharifullah to turn and look at him as he spoke about the life and death of his 20-year-old son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz.
“They may have taken his life, but they'll never take his legacy," Schmitz said. “A bomb killed my son. It did not kill what he stood for.”
Sharifullah requested a 17-year prison sentence, while prosecutors sought 20 years. His lawyers say he was never an ISIS-K leader and has not been convicted of any conduct related to the airport suicide bombing.
"He was brought here because the government believed he participated in the Abbey Gate attack, a theory which it was unable to prove at trial,” defense attorneys wrote.
Prosecutors said in their sentencing memo that “from his teenage years, when he pledged an oath of allegiance to ISIS-K, Sharifullah’s carnage was driven by hate. Hate towards Americans.”
Jurors convicted Sharifullah of providing material support to ISIS-K. They deadlocked on whether any deaths at the airport “resulted from” that conspiracy. Sharifullah could have faced a possible life sentence if the jury had unanimously decided that question.
According to prosecutors, Sharifullah told a journalist that he wanted to “catch and kill the crusaders” from the United States for invading his country after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They said Sharifullah was involved in dozens of other attacks, including a March 2024 assault on a Moscow concert hall that killed roughly 140 people.
Defense lawyers argued that prosecutors failed to present any evidence tying Sharifullah to the Kabul bombing besides his own words during hours of FBI questioning. His team said Sharifullah told FBI agents what he thought they wanted to hear, possibly because he was afraid of being tortured in Pakistani custody before he was brought to the U.S.
A review by U.S. Central Command found that the Abbey Gate bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an IS member who had been released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban. According to an FBI affidavit. Sharifullah recognized the alleged bomber as an operative he had known while incarcerated.
FILE - This courtroom sketch depicts government witness Bruce Hoffman testifying as defendant Mohammad Sharifullah, seated left, listens during the opening day of the trial for Sharifullah in federal court in Alexandria, Va., April 20, 2026. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)
The execution of a man who killed two real estate agents in Georgia was halted by a judge’s late-night decision, at least for now, while an execution in Texas of a man convicted of a rural triple murder was still expected to take place Wednesday.
This would be the fifth execution in Texas, while Georgia has yet to put anyone to death this year. The nation's busiest death chamber is in Florida, which accounted for more than half the 25 executions already carried out in the U.S. this year.
Stacey Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown in an Atlanta suburb. He had been scheduled to die by injection of the sedative pentobarbital at 7 p.m. EDT at the state prison near Jackson.
LeJames Norman, 40, was sentenced to death in the 2005 fatal shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, while looking for cocaine inside their home in Texas. He too is scheduled to die by injection of the same chemical at 6 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
A judge halted Humphreys’ execution late Tuesday after his lawyers filed a petition seeking a resentencing under a new state law that allows victims of abuse to have their sentences reconsidered and reduced, if they can tie their crimes to abuse they suffered.
The state is appealing that ruling, which could keep the execution on track for Wednesday evening. If an appeals court rules before the scheduled execution time that Humphreys is not entitled to a hearing on his petition for a reduced sentence, the judge said he will consider lifting the stay so the execution can proceed.
Norman believed there was cocaine in the house in Edna, a small, rural city about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Houston, and hoped to steal it alongside Ker’Sean Ramey, according to court records. But they never found any drugs and fatally shot three people in the home. Lopez was shot four times, including three in the back of his head. Peacock was shot twice in the head. Roberts was shot five times to the chest, neck and head.
Norman was arrested about five months after the killings while trying to cross back into the U.S. from Mexico. He pleaded guilty to capital murder, leaving a jury to decide his punishment.
Ramey was also convicted in the shootings and sentenced to death. His execution is set for next week.
A final request for a stay for Norman was before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The two women who Humphreys killed were working as real estate agents for a new subdivision in the Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs. He entered the sales office in a model home around midday on Nov. 3, 2003, and forced them to strip naked and give him their bank PINs before fatally shooting them, according to evidence presented at trial.
Humphreys withdrew more than $3,000 from the women's bank accounts, according to court filings. He told police after his arrest that he had recently taken out some high-interest payday loans and needed money for a payment on his truck.
Witnesses told police they saw a man fitting Humphreys’ description at the sales office and a vehicle in the parking lot that matched his black Dodge Durango. Police zeroed in on Humphreys and tried to question him at his Dunwoody home days later. He fled and was arrested in Wisconsin after leading police on a high-speed chase.
Humphreys weighs about 370 pounds (170 kilograms) and his lawyers say he has several health issues that make him feel like he’s suffocating and choking when lying on his back. To keep him from suffering “an excruciating death,” his lawyers sought modifications to the lethal injection process, and prison authorities agreed to elevate the gurney as much as possible and place blankets behind him to further elevate his upper body if his breathing becomes restricted.
In addition to the petition for a reduced sentence, Humphreys’ lawyers have argued that he should be resentenced because his death sentence was tainted by a biased juror who lied during jury selection and bullied other jurors into voting for a death sentence. Courts have repeatedly rejected those arguments for procedural reasons, though U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the other two liberal justices, argued last year that the issue should be further explored rather than leaving it “caught in a web of procedural barriers.”
Additionally, Humphreys' lawyers have argued that it was not fair that his clemency application was heard by only four members of the five-person State Board of Pardons and Paroles. A judge had ordered one member of the board to recuse herself, agreeing with Humphreys’ legal team that there was a conflict of interest because she previously worked as a victim advocate with the Cobb County district attorney’s office and had worked with the victims in his case. The parole board on Tuesday denied clemency for Humphreys.
Brumback reported from Atlanta and Stengle reported from Dallas.
This combination of photos provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Georgia Department of Corrections shows LeJames Norman, left, and Stacey Humphreys, right. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice/Georgia Department of Corrections via AP)
This photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows LeJames Norman on Feb. 28, 2024. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
