In closing arguments, the two sides dueled over why Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant, drove a truck onto a Manhattan bike path and killed 8 in 2017.
The case of Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant who has been charged with driving a truck onto a Manhattan bike path and killing eight people on Halloween Day in 2017, is likely to go to the jury on Wednesday.
The attack was the deadliest in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001, the authorities have said. Mr. Saipov is the first person to face a death penalty trial during the Biden administration, though President Biden campaigned against capital punishment.
In closing arguments on Tuesday, Jason A. Richman, a federal prosecutor, described how Mr. Saipov “turned a bike path into his battlefield,” leaving behind mangled cycles, truck parts and bodies. Mr. Richman argued that Mr. Saipov carried out the attack to become a member of the Islamic State, a terrorist group that once controlled large swaths of Iraq and Syria and promised to create a new caliphate for Muslims.