The Shoe Bomb Case Study

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Background and Investigation The case of Richard Reid, also known as the Shoe Bomber, began on December 22, 2001 when the 29 year old tried to light a bomb on the American Flight 63 which was departing from Paris to Miami (Snopes, 2013; Stark, n.d.). The bomb was hidden in Reid’s shoe. If he would have succeeded in lighting the bomb, it would have killed all 197 passengers along with Reid himself. The other passengers became suspicious of him as he sat in Seat 29A with no luggage (Belluck, 2003). Luckily, before he could light the bomb fully, one of the flight attendants smelt the scent of matches at Reid’s seat and confronted him, which lead him to attack her (Snopes, 2013). Some of the other passengers came over to help the flight attendant. …show more content…

Investigators had also discovered some evidence (e.g. human hair and palm print) that showed someone may have helped Reid build these bombs even though he claimed he made them himself ( ). An F.B.I director named Robert Mueller III thought an Al Qaeda bomb maker could have made the shoe bomb for Reid (Belluck, 2003). The one thing that puzzled the investigators is how Reid successfully got on board on an American …show more content…

The death penalty was not acceptable towards any of the eight counts he was charged with (Belluck, 2003). Prosecutors wanted Reid to get a harsher sentence, but Reid decided to plead guilty instead of going in front of a jury. When it was time for Reid to speak, he laughed while saying yes, his goal was to destroy the plane, but he refused to apologize for his actions since he considers himself an enemy of the United States (Belluck, 2003; & Snopes, 2013). He would not turn against the Al-Qaida or Osama Bin Laden. When court was dismissed, Reid resisted being taken out of the courtroom to head to a cell (Belluck, 2003). As he was being led out, Reid shouted threats to the judge letting him know this is not the

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