Washington: Rejecting claims of insanity, a jury convicted the man who killed Indian immigrant Balbir Singh Sodhi after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, of first-degree murder.

Frank Silva Roque, who assumed the turbaned Sodhi to be an Arab terrorist and gunned down the Sikh immigrant outside his petrol pump on September 15, 2001, could get a death penalty for the murder.

The jury, which began the hearing late on September 29 in Arizona, also found Roque guilty of attempted murder, drive-by shooting and endangerment for two more racially motivated attacks.

Roque's lawyers argued that he was insane at the time of the shooting and suffered from mental illness his entire life.

The defence lawyers contended that Roque did not start using racial slurs until after the terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

PTI