US magistrate judge recommends Lodi man’s terror conviction be vacated

SACRAMENTO -- U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes has recommended the 2006 terrorism conviction of a Lodi man be vacated.

In a Friday opinion, she wrote Hamid Hayat's constitutional rights were violated because he received an inadequate defense and because prosecutors barred alibi witnesses who later testified he could not have been at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and 2004. The case will now go back before a district court judge; the sides will have 30 days to file any objections. In a statement, the Eastern District U.S. attorney's office said it was "reviewing our options" in the case, which could potentially be retried.