| No Images? Click here   Noor Salman, the widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter, was found not guilty on Friday of helping her husband with his deadly attack.The 2016 attack claimed the lives of 49 people. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Salman was arrested in January 2017, seven months after the attack, and has been held behind bars ever since.Salman, 31, cried as she heard the verdict. The first thing she said was “thank you,” her lawyers said.Melissa Jeltsen spent several weeks in Orlando, Fla., covering the trial. There she learned that Salman was another of Mateen's victims. He was violently abusive, Salman said: He beat her and forced her to have sex against her will. He controlled what money she spent, and even dictated what she was allowed to eat.We talked to Jeltsen about what it was like to cover the trial.What about the trial stood out for you?When the government charged her with aiding and abetting her husband, I assumed that they had strong evidence against her. It is extremely rare for a family member of a mass shooter or a terrorist to be prosecuted. But sitting through the trial, listening to the evidence day in, day out, it was obvious how thin the case was. The government could not find a single social media post or internet search to suggest Salman had even a passing interest in ISIS or jihad. There was nothing. Because they couldn't argue that she was radicalized, they had to come up with another motivation for her to help her husband. They told the jury she was, essentially, a gold-digger, who was convinced to go along with this horrific plan of mass murder for a diamond ring.This portrayal of her, I think, really fell flat to the jury. Especially when they heard from Salman's friends and family, who described her as a loving, albeit simple and naive, woman.What has been most challenging about reporting on it?The Pulse massacre was a devastating, unimaginable act of violence. Forty-nine people were killed. And the gay community was irrevocably ripped apart. A lot of people in Orlando wanted retribution. They wanted someone to be held accountable. I went into the trial being very skeptical of the case against her, having read all the court documents. But I wanted to make sure that I matched my empathy for Salman with empathy for a grieving community, who desperately want justice for what occurred.Anything you'd like to add?The prosecutors chose to pursue a case against Salman, knowing full well that her "confession" was contradicted by forensic evidence and could not possibly be true. They knew she did not scout Pulse with her husband, for example. But they still repeated that information, including to the judge in the case who had the responsibility of deciding if she got bail. He denied it, in part because of the false information that the government kept repeating. The consequences of the prosecution's actions is that a young mother was kept in solitary confinement for over a year, separated from her young son. That's wrong. I think there needs to be real reflection by government lawyers about why they pursued this case, and the impact it had on an innocent woman's life.
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