Zein al-Abdeen Hassan Isa

Case record

Parties and identities

• Zein al-Abdeen Hassan Isa (naturalized United States citizen) was the father of Palestina Isa, also known as Tina Isa (16-year-old at the time of the killing).
• Maria Isa was Zein Isa’s wife and Tina Isa’s mother (Brazilian).
• Fatima Isa was Tina Isa’s sister.
• Soraia Salem was one of Tina Isa’s sisters.
• Bob Craddick was an assistant prosecutor for seven years.
• Dee Joyce-Hayes was the prosecuting attorney who received tapes after the killing.
• Judge Charles A. Shaw was the Circuit Judge who set a sentencing date.
• Carl Smith was an alternate juror.
• Jean Lloyd was another alternate juror.
• Charles Heuvelman was the third alternate juror.
• Mrs. Abraham was a family friend who would give her name only as Mrs. Abraham.
• Harris was a St. Louis television reporter.
• The FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the electronic surveillance and later turned tapes over to prosecutors.
• Palestina (her full name was Palestina) was the last daughter at home, lived in Brazil, Puerto Rico and on the West Bank, and was described as happiest in St. Louis.

Background

Zein Isa lived in St. Louis. He was a Palestinian immigrant and a naturalized United States citizen. Maria Isa was Brazilian. The household included multiple languages and religious and cultural differences: Zein Isa and others were Muslim, and Maria Isa was Roman Catholic. Tina Isa was described as the last daughter at home and the most American of the family.

Testimony indicated that Tina Isa clashed with her older sisters as well as her parents over her boyfriend and her night job at a fast-food restaurant. In the Isa household, the daughters were supposed to work only for their parents at home or in their small grocery store, and they were not to date outside the faith nor leave home without permission. Tina had applied for a part-time job at a local Saint Louis Wendy’s Restaurant against her parents’ wishes and without their permission. She had recently begun seeing a Black boy from school, described as disrespectful to the family in her father’s eyes.

Tina was described as an honor student and as having played high school soccer over her father’s objections. She also went to the junior prom over his objections, only to be taken away by family members. On the night of her death, Tina’s parents expressed anger on tape that she was at work, then seemed not to believe that she was at work at all.

The offence

Zein Isa stabbed his daughter Palestina (Tina) Isa during the night of November 6, 1989 at their apartment in St. Louis. The killing was recorded by electronic surveillance devices planted by federal agents.

• The murder was described as an eight-minute sequence on the surveillance tape.
• Tina’s pleas for help were captured on audio.
• Maria held Tina down while Zein Isa stabbed her with a butcher knife.
• Tina was stabbed thirteen times in the chest with a butcher’s knife in one account.
• Another account described Tina being stabbed six times in the chest with a boning knife that pierced her heart, one lung, and liver, investigators said.
• During the killing on the tape, Zein Isa was heard in Arabic: “Die quickly!” and also shouted: “Die! Die quickly! Die, my daughter, die!”
• On the tape, after Tina began to shriek in fear, Zein Isa was heard saying: “Keep still, Tina!”
• Maria asked questions about items in Tina’s schoolbag during the recorded conversation.

Verbatim dialogue recorded on the tape included:

• Zein Isa: “Here, listen, my dear daughter, do you know that this is the last day. Tonight, you’re going to die?”
• Tina Isa: “Huh?”
• Zein Isa: “Do you know that you are going to die tonight?”
• Tina Isa: “Help! Help!”
• Maria Isa: “What help?”
• Maria Isa: “Are you going to listen? Are you going to listen?”
• Tina Isa: “Yes! Yes! Yes, I am!” then coughs and adds, “No. Please!”
• Maria Isa: “Shut up!”
• Zein Isa: “Die! Die quickly! Die quickly!”
• Zein Isa: “Quiet, little one! Die my daughter, die!”

One account stated that the tape ends with Zein Isa telling his daughter: “die, die quickly, quiet, little one, die, my daughter, die.” The tape ended with silence on the tape and it was described as obvious Tina had died.

Zein Isa admitted on the witness stand that he put his foot on his daughter’s mouth to quiet her. Maria did not testify.

A legal outcome regarding self-defense was contested in the proceedings: Zein Isa claimed self-defense, and the record described that the claim was unwarranted in the trial narrative, with the FBI surveillance central to the prosecution’s case.

Investigation

The FBI planted listening devices in the apartment. The FBI planted the devices while looking into possible illegal activities by Zein Isa on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as part of an investigation into whether he was involved with the Palestine Liberation Organization. In another account, Zein Isa was described as a member of the Abu Nidal Organization and, at the time, that organization was plotting to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The surveillance was described as not being staffed on November 6, 1989, the night Tina Isa was killed. Soon after the killing, the FBI turned over tapes to the prosecutor Dee Joyce-Hayes. Telephone conversations with Zein Isa and several other daughters were included on tapes turned over; they were described as discussing methods of getting rid of Tina, including accusing her of attacking him with a knife. The tape was described as a mixture of Arabic, Portuguese and English, and it was translated for the jury.

Audio evidence included:

• A seven-minute tape of the killing (in multiple accounts described as central to the trial).
• The sequence recorded on the surveillance tapes.

Arrest

No separate arrest event was stated in the provided material.

Trial

Zein Isa and Maria Isa went to trial for the murder of their daughter Tina Isa. A jury convicted the couple of first-degree murder.

A jury that convicted the couple on October 25 recommended the death penalty. The jury deliberated more than four hours before asking for the death penalty against Zein Isa and his wife, Maria. In one account, the jury deliberated more than four hours on a Saturday before recommending the death penalty; in another, the jury asked for death after being in deliberation.

During the trial, Zein Isa tried to get the surveillance tapes thrown out as evidence; the court allowed the tapes as evidence, and the jury heard Tina’s voice and the method of the killing in their home. While deliberating, jurors asked to rehear the tape of the killing, and they did so over the protest of defense lawyers. Outside the courtroom, one lawyer said: “We don’t want them to play it. If they hear it again, it’ll kill us.”

The tape was described as chilling the jury of seven women and five men and shocking court officials.

Statements by specific individuals at trial included:

• Bob Craddick said: “It’s worse than any movie, any film, anything I thought that I would ever hear in my life.”
• Carl Smith, an alternate juror, said: “I cried because I wish I could have been there to help her.”
• Jean Lloyd, an alternate juror, said: “For him to say 'die quickly' and put his foot over her mouth, at some point I just wanted to stand up and scream.”
• Charles Heuvelman, an alternate juror, said: “just because she wants to be an American teen-ager.” (This statement appears within the narrative describing his view that the parents had no right to kill their child for that reason.)

After guilty verdicts, cultural divisions were described in the courtroom: Tina Isa’s high school friends burst into tears, while the Isa family and friends quietly clenched hands.

Soraia Salem said the system failed her sister and that the family sought help from the police in the months before the murder, including asking for Tina to be placed in a foster home. Prosecutors said they found only one police report.

Mrs. Abraham expressed dismay at what she saw as the jury’s failure to acknowledge Palestinian culture and said: “I feel it's not right. We follow our religion,” and: “They'd be embarrassed in front of everybody in the country like somebody when they go without their clothes outside.”

Charles Heuvelman said the parents had no right to kill their child “just because she wants to be an American teen-ager.”

Sentencing

On December 20, 1991, both Zein Isa and Maria Isa were sentenced to death by injection. Judge Charles A. Shaw was described as setting a sentencing date for December 13 for Zein Isa and his wife; the death sentences were handed down on December 20, 1991.

A jury that convicted them on October 25 recommended death. The only alternative to the death sentence was described as life in prison without parole. Lawyers for the couple said the convictions, which relied heavily on a secretly recorded audio tape, would be appealed.

After the sentences were handed down, Fatima Isa screamed: “If my father is sent to death because he is a Muslim, then he is proud of himself to die that way,”

Appeals

An FBI-related indictment was mentioned:

• On April 1, 1993, Zein Isa was indicted by the FBI in connection with his Abu Nidal Organization activities.
• The charges were dropped because he was already on death row.

A planned appeal of the verdicts was described, and it was stated that the defendants were expected to appeal the verdict. No specific appellate disposition was provided in the material beyond the later commutation for Maria Isa and Zein Isa’s death in prison.

Outcome

Zein Isa died in prison on February 17, 1997, described as due to diabetes.

Maria Isa’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole.

Aftermath / additional contextual narrative included in the case record

The narrative described Tina Isa’s death as an honor killing. It described honor killing norms as typically involving a family member killing a female relative for dishonor and noted that the killing became publicly visible. The FBI was described as unintentionally taping the murder during electronic surveillance of the Isa’a home and that the FBI found terrorism-related evidence while recording the murder.

The narrative also described that after the killing, the FBI turned over tapes to prosecutors. It stated that the FBI refused to discuss the tapes and that only some were used at the trial.

The narrative described that on the tape Zein Isa was heard shouting in Arabic “Die quickly!” in answer to his daughter’s cries. It also described that the tape was translated into English for the jury and that it included Arabic, Portuguese and English.

A further narrative component described a book and media coverage by Harris, a St. Louis television reporter, including work through court transcripts and interviewing those connected to the case.

Other details

• Zein Isa was 61 years old at sentencing, and Maria Isa was 48.
• Zein Isa testified in Arabic and through a translator.
• Zein Isa testified that he stabbed Tina when she demanded $5,000 and came at him with a kitchen knife, and that: “When I said, 'You are going to die tonight,' she already had the knife in her hand,” and that: “I then directed the knife toward her to stab her until she fell down.”
• The surveillance unit was described as not being staffed on Nov. 6, 1989.
• The FBI audio was described in multiple places as a secretly recorded audio tape and as central to the trial.
• A New York Times entry described a Dec. 13 sentencing date set by Judge Charles A. Shaw, with the death sentences delivered on Dec. 20, 1991.
• The narrative stated that Maria Isa held her daughter down while Zein Isa stabbed Tina.
• One account described Tina’s murder taking eight minutes on tape.
• Another account described the murder as a ghastly eight-minute sequence.
• Another narrative stated the tape was turned over to the prosecutor after the killing, including phone conversations with Zein Isa and other daughters about methods of getting rid of Tina, including accusing Tina of attacking him with a knife.