Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – Two Illinois men who helped bomb a Minnesota mosque in 2017 have received prison sentences far below the 35-year mandatory minimum they faced, after victims and prosecutors asked for leniency
Michael McWhorter, 33, was sentenced to just under 16 years in prison and Joe Morris, 26, was sentenced to about 14 years. Both testified in the 2020 trial against Emily Claire Hari, the leader of a small Illinois militia group called the “White Rabbits.”
Hari was convicted in late 2020 and sentenced last year to 53 years in prison for the attack on Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center, a mosque in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said Tuesday that the men’s “substantial assistance” allowed him to issue penalties below the statutory minimums, the Star Tribune reported.
Morris apologized to those he harmed, saying he was ashamed that he believed the things Hari told him.
“What I did was very, very wrong,” he continued. “But I ask for your mercy.”
