Pulse shooting trial: Noor Salman jury instructions

ORLANDO, Fla. — Jury selection will begin Thursday for the widow of the Pulse gunman.

Noor Salman will stand trial in federal court. She faces two charges: obstructing justice and aiding and abetting her husband’s attack.

Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others inside the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016. Mateen was shot and killed during the attack.

Salman is the only person charged in the attack.

Fifty-seven pages of jury instructions were released last week; although the instructions not final, they give an idea of what prosecutors have to prove against Salman.

“What the government will show is that Omar Mateen provided material support to a terrorist organization and that his wife, in some aspect, helped him accomplish that goal,” WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said.

Sheaffer said that without Mateen’s proven terrorism, the case falls flat.

“It’s not going to be enough to show that Noor Salman knew her husband was going to commit a terrorist act.  She will have to do something, no matter how slight, to aid him in accomplishing that act,” Sheaffer said.

The jury instructions said convicting Salman “requires proof that (she was) intentionally associated with or participated in the crime, not just proof that (she) was simply present at the scene of a crime or knew about it."

The help can be just about anything including, “financial services, lodging, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities and weapons."

The trial is expected to last four to six weeks.

Federal court does not allow TVs in the courtroom, so the trial will not be televised or streamed online.

WFTV has a team of reporters who will cover the trial on Channel 9, as well as on wftv.com and our smart TV apps once the trial wraps up each day.

If convicted, Salman could face life in prison.

Follow Shannon Butler, Ken Tyndall and Elyna Niles-Carnes who will be covering the trial on Twitter.

Cox Media Group