The case against Jamal Mustafa Shehadeh already was strange enough: he was accused of being a serial arsonist who conspired with the father of French train hero Spencer Stone, then took a guilty plea in federal court in a hastily arranged Saturday night hearing.
Now, Shehadeh, 59, is claiming prosecutors threatened him into accepting the guilty plea he entered and is asking U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to set aside his 30-year prison sentence.
“The district court should examined(sic) more carefully the voluntariness of the plea,” Shehadeh wrote in a document filed Wednesday in federal court in Sacramento. “The fact that the plea agreement was rushed in, and never been discussed in detail due to the fact Jamal had blacked out and was taken to medical for possibility of stroke.