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Exhibition Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom Illustration

Marilyn Church. Sheikh Omar Rahman, 11 Terrorists, March 1995. Colored pencil, water-soluble crayon, and pastel on ochre paper. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (050.00.00)
LC-DIG-ppmsca- 51115 © Marilyn Church
Gift of the family of Marilyn Church
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"Blind Sheikh" Omar Rahman on Trial

In 1993 as part of the investigation of the World Trade Center bombing, the government began to look at Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman's activities and his connection to the bombers. The federal attorneys in the federal district court in Manhattan argued that Omar Rahman, "The Blind Sheikh," sought to undermine the U.S. from his New Jersey mosque: U.S. v. Rahman, 861 F.Supp. 247 allowing evidence gathered under FISA warrants to stand. Emad Ali Salem, who had infiltrated the group on behalf of the FBI, testified during the 1995 trial before Judge Michael Mukasey. Andrew C. McCarthy, assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York led the prosecution. Rahman, discernable in his darkened glasses sits with ten unidentified defendants: appeal at 189 F.3d 88 (1999). Rahman died on February 18, 2017, from health complications at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina. The other defendants are scattered among other federal prisons throughout the United States.