Ari Halberstam - Sentencing of Rashid Baz

Sentencing of Rashid Baz

Rashid Baz's defense team portrayed him as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his childhood exposure to violence during the Lebanese Civil War. They argued further that Baz' actions were triggered by the terrorist killing of 29 Muslims just four days earlier by Baruch Goldstein in Hebron. The jury rejected this argument, and on December 1, 1994, Baz was convicted on one count of murder, 14 counts of attempted murder, and one count of criminal use of a firearm. Despite the conviction of Baz, the Halberstam family and others wanted the case reclassified as a terrorist attack and wanted a further investigation to probe any terrorist links to Baz. On August 26, 1999 the United States Department of Justice and FBI agreed to open an investigation into Baz. The investigation did not yield any new leads connected to terrorist organizations but the Justice Department did formally reclassify the incident as an act of terrorism. But in his confession in 2007, Baz said, "I only shot them because they were Jewish.”