New York Television Executive Gets 25 Years for Beheading Wife

March 09, 2011
Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A judge on Wednesday gave a Pakistani former television executive the harshest punishment he could for beheading his estranged wife: 25 years to life in prison and a withering assessment of his character.

Muzzammil Hassan, who'd claimed his wife abused him, stood with his head bowed as the judge told him that even his own children had nothing but contempt for him. He scoffed at the idea that Hassan stabbed Aasiya Hassan more than 40 times and decapitated her because he was afraid of her.

"You bought two hunting knives, you tested them for sharpness, you laid in wait in a darkened hallway for your unsuspecting wife and you butchered her," Judge Thomas Franczyk said. "Self-defense? I don't think so." the rest