Man Pushes For Erasing Of Terrorism Conviction, Blames Attorney

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California man's long battle to overturn his high-profile terrorism conviction faces a key courtroom test today.

Lawyers for Hamid Hayat will argue that their client's trial attorney was incompetent, and failed to uncover evidence they say proves his innocence. They argue that Hayat was coerced when he confessed to FBI agents that he attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan and returned to the U.S. to await orders to carry out an attack.

A federal magistrate judge in Redding, California, is presiding over the hearing and will recommend to a district court judge whether Hayat's terrorism conviction and 24-year prison sentence should be tossed out.

Hayat was arrested along with his father and four other men connected to a mosque in Lodi, California, that federal investigators said served as the center of a Central California terrorist "sleeper cell." But only Hayat was convicted of terror charges.