Judge Overturns 2006 Terror Conviction of California Man

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—A federal judge on July 30 overturned the 2006 conviction of a California man accused of plotting an attack in the United States after attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Terror probe defendant Hamid Hayat, right, and his attorney Wazhma Mojaddidi listen as U.S. District Judge Garlend E. Burrell Jr. reads the jury's guilty verdict at the federal courthouse in Sacramento, Calif., on April 25, 2006. Vicki Ellen Behringer/AP Photo

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—A federal judge on July 30 overturned the 2006 conviction of a California man accused of plotting an attack in the United States after attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Federal prosecutors were reviewing the decision and did not immediately say whether they will seek to retry Hamid Hayat, a cherry picker from the community of Lodi in California’s Central Valley agricultural heartland, who has already served more than 14 years of his 24-year sentence for providing material support to terrorists and lying to FBI agents. They could also appeal U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr.’s decision.