Faculty, administration react to not guilty verdict

Faculty and administration reaction to yesterday's not guilty verdict for two suspects in the murder of fifth-year graduate student Al-Moez Alimohamed initially ranged from shock to disappointment. Professors who knew Alimohamed were definitely upset by the outcome. "I'm certainly outraged by the trial," Mathematics Graduate Chairperson Wolfgang Ziller said. "I considered him a friend," Ziller added. "He was a wonderful person and brilliant math student." Ziller, who has been attending the trial daily since it began last fall, commented that Alimohamed's death was a personal loss. And Mathematics Undergraduate Chairperson Dennis DeTurck said he was "shocked, disappointed and confused," by the verdict. Alimohamed was a teaching assistant for DeTurck for several semesters. "When he died, it was a real tragedy," DeTurck said, adding that the verdict will "make it hard for people around the Math Department to recover." Ziller attributed the disappointing verdict to the difficulty of the jury process. "The jury was not allowed to take any notes," Ziller explained. "They had to remember everything from memory. Such a jury process is bizarre and outrageous." Deturck agreed that the verdict was inexplicable. "From what I understand the prosecution case seemed like a solid case," he said. Members of the administration shared similar sentiments. Vice Provost for Graduate Education Janice Madden said she felt that justice was not served. "But I hope I'm wrong," she said. And while School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rosemary Stevens said she has not reviewed the evidence, her "primary reaction is that there isn't yet closure to a terrible human tragedy." "We're still mourning him," she said. Former Mathematics Graduate Chairperson Ted Chinburg and Mathematics Professor Andre Scedrov, Alimohamed's doctoral degree advisor, declined to comment on the verdict.