Murderer Noor Hussain’s trial underway in New York.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A Pakistani American man in Brooklyn, NY, is on trial for having beaten his wife to death with a walking stick, all because she cooked him a vegetarian meal instead of the non-veg meal he really wanted.
Seventy-five year-old Noor Hussain allegedly beat his wife, Nazar (66) to death while she was sleeping in her bed in 2011. Hussain, who is apparently known to have a violent temper, had reportedly abused his wife in the past, but in this particular instance, his anger simply got the best of him – all because he wanted goat meat for dinner, but was served lentils instead.
Hussain is accused of having struck his wife somewhere around 20 times with his walking stick, while she was laying bed. The beating left her bed sheets soaked with blood, along with blood spattered on the wall, and was so severe that a coroner’s determined her brain function had stopped because of the severity of the blows.
Now, Hussain’s trial is officially underway in Brooklyn Supreme Court, with charges of murder levied against him that could see him spend the rest of his life behind bars. Prosecutors and Hussain’s defense team have argued about the merits of the murder charge, going back and forth on what Hussain’s intentions truly were on the night Nazar died.
Prosecutors, led by District Attorney Sabeeha Madni, have said that Hussain had every intention of killing his wife that fateful night, and was not simply meaning to discipline her. Hussain’s defense, led by Julie Clark, is arguing that Hussain comes from a culture in which disciplining a man’s wife is not just tolerated, but often encouraged, and he was simply doing what he had been raised to do.
Hussain’s defense team hopes to have the charges against him mitigated to manslaughter. The trial will continue through this week, at which point Hussain will be found guilty or not guilty. Should he be found culpable, the trial will move onto the sentencing phase later this year.