“I am not as energetic as I used to be,” Mr. Rushdie said. “I am not as physically strong as I used to be.”
The trial began on Feb. 10 at the Chautauqua County Courthouse in Mayville, N.Y., a village about an hour south of Buffalo. Mr. Matar declined to testify during the trial, and the defense team did not call any witnesses.
During closing arguments, Andrew Brautigam, a defense lawyer, told the jury that “Mr. Matar did not and didn’t ever intend to kill Salman Rushdie.” He said that they did not know what Mr. Matar’s “conscious objective was, what his goal was, what motivated him.”
Mr. Matar was living in New Jersey at the time of the attack and worked at a Marshall’s clothing store. He had moved to the United States from Lebanon with his family when he was a child. In the years leading up to the attack, he became increasingly isolated and intently focused on Islam.
Mr. Rushdie had lived under an Iranian death sentence since 1989 following the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which fictionalized parts of the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims found some of the depictions offensive and even blasphemous. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Mr. Rushdie and put a price on his head of several million dollars.