Butler v. United States

NEWMAN, Chief Judge:

This case involves events surrounding the highly publicized July 1980 assassination of Ali Akbar Tabatabai. Appellants Horace Butler and Ali Abdul-Mani were convicted as accessories after the fact to first-degree murder. Butler was also convicted of grand larceny and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. In addition, Abdul-Mani was convicted of two counts of perjury.1

Tabatabai was an outspoken opponent of the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. Tabatabai worked in the Shah’s government before the Iranian revolution. In 1979 he founded and became president of the Iran…