A black man claiming to have links to Al Qaeda will go on trial for shooting dead a soldier and wounding another

Abdulhakim Muhammad opened fire on an Army recruiting station in Arkansas in 2009, declaring the shooting was in retaliation for U.S. military action in the Middle East. But prosecutors say that the slaying was not terrorism - it was a drive-by shooting committed by a thug with a gun. When Muhammad goes on a state trial in Little Rock, he won't face any federal or terrorism charges. Instead he is facing a capital murder charge, which he complains, likens him to a common criminal. With no grand stage for his political beliefs, and if he is convicted by the state rather than the federal government, he faces a much greater chance of execution. The United States has put three people to death since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988. Arkansas executed 27 people in that time. Muhammad has confessed to The Associated Press, to the judge overseeing his case and to authorities, describing what he'd done and why. He tried to plead guilty in court, but Arkansas law doesn't allow that in death penalty cases, lest the state grant a kind of suicide request. The judge informed Muhammad that he would have to stand trial. Muhammad and other witnesses said that he drove up to a military recruiting station in Little Rock on June 1, 2009, where two soldiers - Army Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, then 18 - were smoking cigarettes outside. They'd recently completed basic training and had volunteered to work as recruiters. Neither had seen combat. Muhammad fired an assault rifle, killing Long and wounding Ezeagwula. Police stopped Muhammad moments later on a highway that would have taken him to Memphis, Tennessee, where he lived until he moved to Little Rock. Officers found more weapons and ammunition in his truck, along with a stash of bottled water and food. He told authorities that he would have killed more soldiers if he could have. Muhammad was born Carlos Bledsoe but changed his name after converting to Islam. In 2007, he traveled to Yemen, where Islamic extremists are known to seek sanctuary. He overstayed his visa and was deported back to the United States. It's not clear whether Muhammad actually has links to terrorist groups or just says he does.