By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The majority of Manhattan voters say the terror trials should be moved out of lower Manhattan and a third want them out of the state entirely, according to a poll released Thursday.
The Quinnipiac University poll showed that 69 percent of Manhattan voters don't want the trials in lower Manhattan. Only 35 percent of Manhattanites want them moved out of New York State, as compared to 44 percent of citywide voters.
In November, the Obama administration announced the U.S. would try self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused terrorists in the federal courthouse just blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The announcement sparked a political firestorm and after outrage and criticism from local residents and politicians, the administration said it would look at other locations.
A decision on the trials' ultimate location has not been finalized.
Manhattan voters were split over whether the terrorist suspects should be tried in military tribunals or in civilian courts. Forty-eight percent said tribunals while 46 percent said civilian courts.
The poll also showed a majority, 70 percent, of New Yorkers approved of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly's job performance. Kelly has been one of the most outspoken critics against holding the terror trials in lower Manhattan.
