Opening Statements Set For Wife Beheading Trial
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Jurors were set to begin hearing the case of a western New York television executive charged with beheading his wife soon after she filed for divorce.
Opening statements in the second-degree murder trial of Muzzammil Hassan were scheduled to start Tuesday in Erie County Court in Buffalo.
The 2009 killing of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan has received much media attention, in part because the couple ran a television station whose goal was to counter negative images of Muslims.
Potential jurors were being asked whether they have issues with the Pakistan-born Hassan's ethnicity, or the fact that he's Muslim and may claim self-defense.
(Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)