Abdul Awkal gets new trial in Cuyahoga courthouse killings

A panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati voted 2-1 to overturn Abdul Awkal's two aggravated murder convictions.

The majority opinion was that Awkal was ill-served by an expert witness called to testify on his behalf during the guilt phase of the trial. Awkal's defense had argued he was insane at the time of the crime, but the expert witness said he believed Awkal was sane.

Awkal shot Latife Awkal and her brother, Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz, in 1992 before a scheduled meeting in the family conciliation services office of the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court on Lakeside Avenue.

Awkal then tried to get away, clutching his 15-month-old daughter and pointing his gun at himself and then her. A sheriff's deputy shot Awkal in the back. He was arrested in the courthouse basement.

The appellate decision states that Awkal must be retried within 180 days or set free.

County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Awkal deserves the same fate as his victims.

The office will appeal the ruling. An appeal could be made to a full panel of 6th Circuit judges or to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Awkal, 50, came to the United States from Lebanon when he was 24 and settled in Detroit. He suffered a mental breakdown in 1985 after being accused of stealing from the gas station where he worked, according to information in the 6th Circuit filing.

He eventually went to work for General Motors and was transferred to the Parma plant

He was introduced to Latife after coming to the Cleveland area.

They married but had issues. She told him on their honeymoon that she didn't love him, but that she would grow to love him.

Things did not get better.

Latife and her family felt Awkal was not a good Muslim. They were critical of him because of his musical tastes and because he enjoyed Christian holidays.

Awkal believed his wife's family interfered with their marriage.

After learning that her husband had given her a venereal disease, Latife filed for divorce. Distraught, Awkal sought counseling for depression and suicidal thoughts, according to the filing.

The couple were scheduled to meet over custody of their daughter when the confrontation occurred at the courthouse. Awkal testified that he asked his wife to return to him but that she refused. He went to his car to get his gun intent on killing himself in front of her. He said he tried to hug his baby one last time, but that his brother-in-law confronted him.

Awkal testified that his brother-in-law's "face 'turn[ed] into that of a monster' and that the walls then collapsed," according to the filing. He claimed to not remember the shootings.

Among those called to testify on Awkal's behalf was Dr. Magdi Rizk, who conducted pretrial sanity and competency evaluations. Although some of Rizk's testimony supported Awkal, he also stated that he believed Awkal was sane at the time of the murders.

"Defense counsel's decision to call Rizk was so damaging to Awkal's defense that even the prosecutor openly wondered why counsel made this choice," stated Judge Karen Moore in her majority opinion, which was joined by Judge Guy Cole.

The state's indication that it would have called Rizk to testify if the defense had not "does not change our conclusion that Awkal was prejudiced by his counsel's objectively unreasonable decision to call Rizk."

In his dissent, Judge Ronald Gilman stated he did not believe Rizk's testimony singlehandedly destroyed Awkal's insanity claim, especially given that another expert witness said she believed he was insane at the time.

He also doesn't believe the other judges have "adequately accounted for the fact that the prosecution would have called Rizk to testify that Awkal was sane at the time of the offense if the defense had not done so first."

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