Hamid and Umer Hayat
Hamid Hayat (born September 10, 1983) is a United States citizen of Pakistani descent from Lodi, California. His father, Umer Hayat (born January 5, 1958), was born in Pakistan and immigrated to the United States in 1976; he is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Together, they were the subjects of the first terrorism trial in the state of California. Both were alleged to be part of, or associated with, a terrorist sleeper cell. In 2019, a judge recommended that the younger Hayat's conviction be overturned, citing an ineffective legal defense for Hayat who was defended by a lawyer who had never previously served in a criminal case in a federal court. The recommendation also cited a coerced confession obtained by the FBI, which one former agent described as the “sorriest confession” he had ever seen. The FBI responded that the portion of the interview critiqued by the former agent had been post-confession. The interview had continued beyond the confession in an effort to gain a better understanding of any terrorism threats and to fill in the intelligence picture. The former agent had also been requested, by the defense, to appear as an expert witness on terrorism but was deemed unqualified by