US man convicted in Palestinian-American boy hate crime murder dies in jail
Joseph Czuba, 73, died on Thursday in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Saturday, citing the Will County Sheriff's Office. The law enforcement agency did not return a call seeking comment on the death.
The murder of the boy, Wadee Alfayoumi, and the attack on his mother, Hanan Shaheen, was one of the earliest and worst hate crime incidents in the US since the start of Israel's war on Gaza.
Three months ago, Czuba was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the attack. He was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges for Alfayoumi's death and for wounding Shaheen.
Czuba attacked them on October 14, 2023, because they were Muslims, and as a response to the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago office, said in a statement on Saturday that 'this depraved killer has died, but the hate is still alive and well'.
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and a police video. Jurors deliberated for less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
The family had been renting rooms in Czuba's home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64km) from Chicago, when the attack happened.
Central to the prosecutors' case was harrowing testimony from the boy's mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim.
'He told me: 'You, as a Muslim, must die,'' said Shaheen during her testimony.
Czuba's ex-wife, Mary, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about Israel's war on Gaza, which has now killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee's relatives.
The case generated headlines around the world and deeply struck the Chicago area's large and established Palestinian community amid rising hostility against Muslims and Palestinians in the US. Wadee's funeral drew large crowds, and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honour.
Other similarly-motivated incidents in the US include the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian-American girl in Texas, the stabbing of a Palestinian-American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California and a Florida shooting of two Israeli visitors whom the suspect mistook for Palestinians.
Three young Palestinian men were also shot near a university campus in Vermont just weeks after Alfayoumi was stabbed to death.
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