Rushdie, 77, was the key witness during testimony that began last week. The Booker Prize-winning author told jurors he thought he was dying when a masked stranger ran onto the stage and stabbed and slashed at him until being tackled by bystanders. Rushdie showed jurors his now-blinded right eye, usually hidden behind a darkened eyeglass lens.

The decision was reached after the eight day trial of Hadi Matar, who is accused of stabbing the author in 2022 more than a dozen times as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.

Hadi Matar was found guilty on Friday of attempting to murder the novelist Salman Rushdie in an onstage stabbing attack at a New York arts institute in 2022.