A former federal correction officer who was grievously injured by a jailed al Qaeda fiend is rooting for his attacker to win a pending appeal — so he can face him in court and curse him to hell.
Louis Pepe — who lost his left eye and suffered brain damage in the November 2000 stabbing — watched from his wheelchair this morning as two Manhattan appeals judges heard arguments over whether Mamdouh Mahmoud Salim should have been present when he got life behind bars.
“He should have come,” Pepe said afterward, adding that he wants to tell Salim: “I think you’re going (to) hell, all the way.”
In 2010, Salim — who’s locked up in the federal “supermax” slammer in Colorado — was allowed to appear at a re-sentencing hearing via video-conference after saying he feared getting beaten by guards en route to the Manhattan federal courthouse.
During this morning’s arguments before the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals, defense lawyer Bruce Bryan said Judge Deborah Batts failed to question Salim on the record to determine if his decision was “willing and voluntary,” as required by law.
Appellate Judge John Walker Jr. called that “the troublesome aspect of this case,” noting that previous rulings have said it’s “insufficient” for a defendant to appear at sentencing by video.
Presiding Judge Gerard Lynch also said “there has to be some rather extraordinary showing before you forgive the erroneous failure of not having the defendant present.”
Prosecutor Andrew Goldstein maintained that Salim’s case was unique because he was virtually guaranteed a life sentence for stabbing Pepe with a sharpened comb inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan.
Salim had previously been sentenced to 32 years, but that punishment was tossed after the feds successfully argued that the attack should have been treated as a terrorist attack, and not just attempted murder.
This morning’s arguments ended without a decision, and there was no indication when a ruling might be handed down.