New York federal appeals court overturns 1 conviction against man who set off pipe bomb in NYC subway

A terrorism conviction against the man serving life in prison for setting off a pipe bomb in the New York City subway was overturned by a federal appeals court in Manhattan. 

The filing from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Akayed Ullah was not providing material support to ISIS when he carried out the attack at the busy Times Square-Port Authority station in 2017, though prosecutors argued at the time he had been radicalized and "admitted that he did it on behalf of ISIS." 

The reversal does not change Ullah's prison sentence, since the judges upheld the rest of the verdict, which also found him guilty of using a weapon of mass destruction and committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system.

"We affirm the judgment on all of the challenged counts except Count One ... because the evidence was insufficient to show that Defendant provided material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization," the court filing said. 

Ullah, an immigrant form Bangladesh, told the judge at his 2021 sentencing, "I'm deeply sorry. ... I do not support harming innocent people." His defense attorney had blamed the attack on a "personal crisis that left him isolated, depressed, vulnerable and suicidal," and asked the court for 35 years in prison, instead of a life sentence. 

Ullah was burned in the blast from the pipe bomb on Dec. 11, 2017. No one was killed, but some people near him suffered minor injuries.