In a stinging defeat for the administration of US President George W. Bush, one of seven Miami men accused of plotting to join forces with al-Qaeda to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower was acquitted on Thursday, and the case against the rest ended in a hung jury.
Federal prosecutor Richard Gregorie said the government planned to retry the six next year, and the judge said a new jury would be picked starting on Jan. 7.
The Bush administration had seized on the case to illustrate the dangers of homegrown terrorism and trumpet the government's post-Sept. 11, 2001, success in infiltrating and smashing terrorism plots in their earliest stages.
Lyglenson Lemorin, 32, had been accused of being a "soldier" for alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste, 33. Lemorin buried his face in his hands when his acquittal was read.
Lemorin, a legal US resident originally from Haiti, was subject to an immigration hold and would not be immediately released, his lawyer said.
The jury gave up on the other defendants after nine days of deliberations on four terrorism-related conspiracy charges that carry a combined maximum of 70 years in prison. The jury twice sent notes to the judge indicating they could not reach verdicts but were told to keep trying. The mistrial came after their third note.
"We believe no further progress can be made," it said. US District Judge Joan Lenard read the note in court.
Prosecutors said the "Liberty City Seven" -- so-named because they operated out of a warehouse in Miami's blighted Liberty City section -- swore allegiance to al-Qaeda and hoped to forge an alliance to carry out bombings against the US' tallest skyscraper, the FBI's Miami office and other federal buildings.
The group never actually made contact with al-Qaeda and never acquired any weapons or explosives. Instead, a paid FBI informant known as Brother Mohammed posed as an al-Qaeda emissary.
The defense portrayed the seven men as hapless figures who were either manipulated and entrapped by the FBI or went along with the plot to con "Mohammed" out of US$50,000.
Prosecutors said no attack was imminent, acknowledging that the alleged terror cell was "more aspirational than operational."
But then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said after the arrests in the middle of last year that the group was emblematic of the "smaller, more loosely defined cells who are not affiliated with al-Qaeda, but who are inspired by a violent jihadist message."
And US Attorney Alexander Acosta of Miami said: "Our mission is to disrupt these cells if possible before they acquire the capability to implement their plans."
Outside the courtroom, jury foreman Jeff Agron said the group took four votes but was split roughly evenly between guilt and innocence for the other six men. They spent hours viewing and listening to FBI recordings of meetings and conversations involving Batiste and the others, he said.
"People have different takes on what they saw, on what was said and what that meant," said Agron, 46, a teacher and lawyer.
Agron said the evidence was weakest against Lemorin, who had moved with his wife and children to Atlanta and gotten a job at a shopping mall after splitting with Batiste months before the group was arrested.
In a statement to the FBI, Lemorin said he never wanted to be associated with al-Qaeda and that he knew "nothing good would come from this."
Defense lawyers contended that the informant and an overzealous FBI were responsible for pushing the alleged conspiracy along.
"This was all written, directed and produced by the FBI," defense attorney Albert Levin said.
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