Domestic terrorism“Death ray” plotter gets 8 years for plan to kill Muslims, Obama

Eric Feight, 55, has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for plotting to build a remote-controlled radiation-emitting “death ray” with which he was planning to kill Muslims and assassinate President Barack Obama.

The Albany Times Union reports that Feight pleaded guilty in January to a federal charge of providing material support to terrorists. He admitted to helping a Ku Klux Klan member Scott Crawford to modify an industrial-grade radiation device, dubbed a “death ray,” and building a switch to operate it from a distance (see “Two men charged with planning an ‘X-ray weapon’ to kill Muslim enemies of U.S., Israel,” HSNW, 20 June 2013; and “Prosecutors ask for confidentiality in NY ‘Death Ray’ case,” HSNW, 28 March 2014).

“The sentence today highlights both the dangers we face when hatred and bigotry beget domestic terrorism and violent extremism, and our commitment to holding those who commit such crimes accountable,” said Richard S. Hartunian, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.

“No American — of any background — should have to live in fear of this kind of attack,” he said in a statement announcing the 97-month sentence handed down in federal court in Albany.

Feight, who could have been sentenced to fifteen years in prison, was arrested along with Crawford in 2013, and both were charged with plotting to use their radiation-emitting device against a mosque in Albany and a Muslim school in nearby Colonie.

In a phone conversation recorded by the FBI in May 2012, the two also discussed driving to Washington, D.C., parking their car near the White House, and using the device to kill Obama and his family. In the conversation, which was played in court, Crawford called the remote-controlled device “Hiroshima on a light switch.”

Prosecutors said that Crawford, 51, a former General Electric industrial engineer from Galway, was the mastermind of the plot. He was convicted in August of using a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to build a radiological dispersal device, which considered a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).

Crawford had also made a trip to North Carolina where he discussed funding for death ray project with a Klan leader. That Klan leader, however, was an FBI informant.

Crawford faces a mandatory minimum of twenty-five years to life in prison and a $2 million fine for the radiological dispersal device charge, and up to life in prison for the weapon of mass destruction charge. No date for sentencing has been set.