Judge prods shooter to apologize to family

One of the victim's brothers was forgiving, while another was not.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A killer hesitantly apologized to the family of the only murder victim in a shooting spree at Case Western Reserve University as he was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.
Biswanath Halder, 65, who did not testify at his trial, spent 30 minutes blaming the university that he once attended for forcing him to resort to violence and said the victims were innocent bystanders.
But he didn't say he was sorry until the Judge Peggy Foley Jones told him Youngstown native Norman Wallace's family was in the Cuyahoga Common Pleas courtroom and he owed them an apology.
Terrible tragedy
His attorney, John Luskin, physically helped turn him toward the audience and Halder said to Wallace's siblings, "It's a terrible tragedy and I'm exceptionally sorry."
Moments later, one of Wallace's brothers forgave Halder for the shooting spree, which Halder claimed was necessary to improve society. "I do forgive you. I don't want to have that on me. I don't want to be like you," Corey Wallace said.
Another brother, David Wallace, told Halder that everyone has been wrong at some point in their lives, but Halder chose to respond with violence.
"Mr. Halder, at this point in your life, you're a worthless human being ... you're the portrait of what hate can do to a person's life," he said.
Halder also accused the judge and his attorneys of conspiring with the university against him.
Conviction
The native of Calcutta, India, was convicted in December on 196 counts, including killing Wallace, a 30-year-old graduate student whom he did not know, and wounding two others during a 71/2-hour siege in May 2003.
The SWAT team responding to the standoff was hampered by the Peter B. Lewis building's unusual design of curvy floors and walls. Halder was captured on the fifth floor.
Halder faced the death penalty but jurors recommended life in prison without parole, a decision the judge had to accept or reject.
Never disputed
Defense lawyers Kevin Cafferkey and Luskin never disputed Halder's guilt and focused their case on the sentencing phase, seeking to spare Halder from the death penalty.
Experts who testified at last month's sentencing hearings said that Halder is out of touch with reality.
In an interview last week with The Associated Press inside the Cuyahoga County Jail, Halder expressed no remorse and accepted no blame for the shooting. He blamed the university for a hacker who had wrecked his Web site meant to help business entrepreneurs from India.
Prosecutors have said they are considering whether to file charges against whoever hacked into Halder's Web site.