Minnesota judge, attorneys looking at other ISIL-related cases ahead of local sentencings

Americans convicted of trying to support the terror group known as ISIL have been sentenced to an average of 15 years in federal prison — toward the high end of their sentencing ranges — according to a report produced Friday by Minnesota prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis requested the analysis as nine Minnesota men await sentencing here on similar convictions. Davis ordered the government to "continually update" its findings until all defendants have been sentenced, which is expected to occur later this year.

The report from the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota summarized the cases of 15 defendants sentenced between June 2014 and this week, when a case concluded in Mississippi.

Prosecutors culled the cases from a list provided by the U.S. Justice Department's national security division, then read news releases to determine which cases involved the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). One outlier — the 25-year sentences in February 2015 for two defendants in California — was included because, like three of the Minnesota cases, it included conspiracy-to-commit-murder charges and went to trial.

Just how the report will influence Davis in the Minnesota sentencings is still an open question.

"He's in a position to really make some sense and give some nuance in how we think about terrorism trials and their outcomes," said Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University's law school.

Kenneth Udoibok, an attorney for one of the nine Minnesota defendants, Adnan Farah, who pleaded guilty in April, welcomed the additional information but said Friday he believed Davis would issue sentences on a "case-by-case basis."

Three of the Minnesota defendants — Abdirahman Daud, Mohamed Farah and Guled Omar — were convicted of conspiracy to murder abroad and to support ISIL in June after a three-week jury trial in Minneapolis. The conspiracy to murder abroad charge carries the potential for a life sentence. Six other co-defendants — including two who agreed to cooperate with the government and testified at trial — pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to ISIL, and face maximum sentences of 15 years in prison.

Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, said judges around the country are looking to Minnesota and that Davis has emerged as one of the more forward-leaning federal judges handling terrorism cases. Hughes' program has tracked 100 defendants charged nationwide with ISIL-related crimes — which can also include charges of lying to or threatening federal officials — with an average sentence of 10.1 years.

"[Davis is] intellectually curious on these issues and wants to make sure whatever judgment he makes is fair," Hughes said. "And also take into account that some of these defendants will be getting out not long from now."

In March, Davis introduced the nation's first "terrorism disengagement and deradicalization" program to help him determine appropriate sentences. He contracted with Daniel Koehler, director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies, to assess five defendants who had pleaded guilty and to train local probation officers to study future defendants.

Davis has previously explored alternatives to jail before the trial. Some attorneys in the case have said they expect to recommend sentences that do not call for prison.

In the Minnesota case, defendants are expected to be sentenced one by one over several days in late fall or early winter, court officials have said.

Greenberg, who published her second report on ISIL-related cases last month and previously tracked terrorism prosecutions since 9/11, said recent sentencings have been on the high end of the suggested range, perhaps influenced by terror attacks abroad and in Orlando in June.

But, she said, Davis' actions before trial and now before sentencing signal an attempt to distinguish between domestic terrorism cases on a spectrum of severity.

"I think he recognizes the importance of the position he's in," Greenberg said.

Stephen Montemayor • 612-673-1755