DETROIT (AP) -- A lawyer assisting the man known as the Detroit underwear bomber says a mandatory sentence of life in prison is unfair for a crime that didn't hurt any passengers aboard an international flight.
In a court filing Monday, Anthony Chambers is asking a judge to declare the punishment cruel and unconstitutional. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is returning to court Thursday, four months after admitting he tried to blow up an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight on Christmas 2009.
Chambers says the only passenger who was injured was Abdulmutallab, whose groin was severely burned when he tried to detonate a bomb in his underwear. The Nigerian man has no other criminal history.
Abdulmutallab has said he was working for al-Qaida when he tried to blow up the plane.