Jury selection underway in admitted killing of Ark. soldier by Muslim convert

(CBS/AP) LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Jury selection began Monday in the Arkansas state trial of Abdulhakim Muhammad, who faces a capital murder charge for the 2009 shooting death of a 23-year-old Army private. The 26-year-old Muhammad previously took responsibility for the shooting at a military recruiting center, calling it retaliation for U.S. military action in the Middle East.

Muhammad has complained that he is being treated like a common criminal, with the state trial on a capital murder charge. He faces a greater chance of receiving the death penalty at the state level, than in a federal case.

The U.S. has put three people to death since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988. Arkansas executed 27 people in that time.

"This case should be in federal or military court..." Muhammad objected in a letter to Circuit Judge Herbert Wright in May. "In my eyes it's a sham trial set up only to make sure I'm handed down a death sentence."

Besides the greater chance of a death penalty sentence, some say prosecuting Muhammad on a capital murder charge has the benefit of deflating his grandiose self-perceptions.

"He wants to be perceived as a sort of foot soldier in this revolution against the United States," said John DiPippa, law school dean for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "Trying him on the base crime of murder, you're depriving him of even that recognition."

Muhammad and others said he drove up to a military recruiting station in Little Rock in 2009, where two soldiers -- Army Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, then 18 -- were smoking cigarettes outside. They'd recently completed basic training and had volunteered to work as recruiters. Neither had seen combat. Muhammad fired an assault rifle, killing Long and wounding Ezeagwula.

Police stopped Muhammad moments later on a highway that would have taken him to Memphis, Tenn., where he lived until he moved to Little Rock. Officers found more weapons and ammunition in his truck, along with a stash of bottled water and food. He told authorities he would have killed more soldiers if he could have.

Muhammed, who traveled to Yemen in 2007 where Islamist extremists are knows to seek sanctuary, claims that he made ties with al-Qaida.

Prosecutors say the crime is a drive-by shooting committed by a thug with a gun.

"It's just like every other unlawful taking of human life," prosecutor Larry Jegley said. "It has a horrible impact on the family and survivors and it stains the soul of the community."

Muhammad was born Carlos Bledsoe but changed his name after converting to Islam.

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