They were most recently called to the residence February 6, 2009, the day Hassan was served with divorce papers and an order of protection,[14] where it is reported he was banging on doors and even broke a window.
"I felt like I had escaped from an Al Qaeda terrorist camp and the safest place was the Orchard Park Police Station.
Police reports indicated that Zubair stated her husband's abusive and controlling behavior had begun at least six years earlier.
When Hassan's wife walked through the door, he stabbed her more than 40 times in the face, back, chest, and decapitated her, some of which was caught on surveillance video.
Hassan, who dismissed four defense attorneys and acted as his own lawyer during the trial, used his two-hour closing remarks telling the jury how he was a slave to his wife's rages.
However, Hassan never produced any witnesses or evidence to substantiate his abuse claims, while prosecutors cited numerous police reports filed by his wife and her medical records which testified to her being the battered spouse.
Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita said the sentence was the maximum amount that could be imposed under state law, and that Hassan will not be "eligible to talk to the parole board" for 25 years.
"[20] The victim's sister, 42-year-old Asma Firfirey of the vicinity of Cape Town, South Africa, said she and her husband Amier talked to Aasiya Hassan the day of the murder.
According to Asma Firfirey, she heard her sister tell Muzzammil Hassan to "calm down" and that they "could talk the following day about the divorce".
[21] Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York and a friend of the couple, said that Hassan "was worried about the station's future" and added "Domestic violence is despicable, and Islam condones it in no way whatever.
"[24] Pappas' superior, Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization of Women, stated: Although the crime was quickly decried by Muslim groups, many talk shows and blogs used the horror of Muzzammil's act to indict an entire community -- in a way that they would never have accused the entire Christian religion because a Methodist man murdered his estranged wife in a horrible way.
Three weeks ago, a Chinese graduate student at Virginia Tech cut off a female friend's head with a knife.
"[9] The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America responded with an "Open Letter to Muslim Leaders", expressing shock and sadness at the murder, condemning domestic violence, and calling on imams and Muslim leaders to "provide support and help to protect the victims of domestic violence" and "to never second-guess a woman who comes to us indicating that she feels her life to be in danger".
According to Sadia's cousin, Zerqa Abid, both of his earlier wives filed for divorce on the same grounds of severe domestic violence and abuses.
On Monday, January 24, Hassan gained permission from Judge Thomas Franczyk to represent himself after repeatedly trying to dismiss his own defense attorney, Jeremy Schwartz.