Azad Haji Abdullah


Facts of the Crime:

Azad Abdullah told police he’d been in Salt Lake City on October 5, 2002 when his wife, 37-year-old Angela "Angie" Jewitt Abdullah, was found murdered in Boise, her home intentionally set aflame in an apparent attempt to cover up the crime.

Federal investigators first suspected an anti-Muslim hate crime based on earlier threats and acts of vandalism against the Islamic Center of Boise, where the Abdullah family attended religious services, but quickly ruled out that possibility.

Just a few days later, the spotlight turned back to Azad when Boise officers found they couldn’t confirm his alibi. By November, what started as circumstantial evidence ultimately led to charges for first-degree murder, arson, felony injury to a child, and the attempted murder of three children — two of Angie’s and one a guest in the home — who escaped the blaze.

Azad pleaded not guilty, but after two years of pre-trial hearings and conferences, he changed his plea to guilty in November 2004.

According to court records, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for felony injury to child, 15 years for each attempted murder and 25 years for arson.

For his wife’s murder, Azad was sentenced to death.

In an Idaho Press-Tribune report shortly after her death, Angie Abdullah was described by acquaintences as “well-loved, honest and joyful.” She worked for the Idaho Refugee Services Program and volunteered through the Islamic Center of Boise.

“She wasn’t a soap-box-type activist,” Boise resident Steven Rainey told the IPT in 2002. “She was an activist in her everyday life. She wanted to make sure everyone found their place in the community.”

Abdullah was sentenced to death on November 23, 2004.