News & Politics - Jury Deliberates if Moussaoui Should Die

Lexis · 04-25-2006, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Jurors in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui went into a second day of deliberations Tuesday to decide whether the Sept. 11 conspirator should receive a death sentence or life in prison.

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The jury deliberated for three hours Monday after hearing closing arguments in the six-week trial.

Prosecutors told jurors that the decision to sentence Moussaoui to death ought to be relatively easy given the horror inflicted on 9/11 and Moussaoui's glee — evident throughout the trial — at the destruction he helped wreak. Nearly 3,000 people died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"If not this case, then when is a death sentence appropriate?" prosecutor David Novak said. "How many people have to die?"

Moussaoui's court-appointed defense lawyers, who have been at odds with their client for years, said a death sentence would be giving Moussaoui exactly what he wants — an execution at the hands of his enemies and martyrdom.

Moussaoui has said at various times that he believes being executed by the Americans may grant him a path to paradise in the afterlife.

Defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin said Moussaoui has twice testified in his own defense and obviously done harm to his own case, first by claiming a direct role in 9/11 after years of denials and then by mocking the testimony of 9/11 victims and their families who tearfully told of their suffering.

Moussaoui's transparent contempt for his victims "is proof that he wants you to sentence him to death," Zerkin told the jury. "He is baiting you into it. He came to America to die in jihad and you are his last chance."

The jury has only two choices: death or life in prison. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema instructed jurors to balance all the factors that argue for death or life in making their decision. If the jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, Brinkema will automatically sentence him to life.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl

What do you think? I would hate to think that by putting him to death, he'd get some kind of satisfication for dying at the hands of Americans.

jalapeno_wildchild · 04-28-2006, 09:56 AM

maybe its awful but i think they should send him to prison, he'll get a fate far worse in prison than he will if they execute him.

there's no doubt in my mind he needs to be punished but i think his worse punishment will be in prison, surrounded by inmates who are probably most americans and will know what he's in there for.

General Maximus · 04-29-2006, 06:56 AM

On top of that, the american guards probably won't care what happens to him either, so the ass raping will be an hourly ordeal and certainly a worthy punishment.

vintagefan · 04-30-2006, 10:46 PM

The only problem with that, is that he is planning to use the American system against us by going to prison. By verbally stating that plan and his disrespect for the judicial system, I think he should be put to death. Plus, look at Charles Manson...

Cantbehrit · 05-01-2006, 06:36 AM

I'm a supporter of the Death Penalty....however in this case I am not.

In his beliefs he will become a Martyr....to live the rest of his life in an American prison is where I think he should go. I feel that would be the absolute best punishment for him.

I live in Alexandria (where the trial is being held) and I forget that - I just got back from the Gym - directly across the street from the courthouse & all the news vans are sitting around waiting for something to happen.

Cantbehrit

Ms Carolyn · 05-04-2006, 05:29 AM

Sentencing is now complete. So, what do you think about it?

Quote:

Moussaoui Sentenced to Life in Prison

By MATTHEW BARAKAT and MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writers

Zacarias Moussaoui claimed victory over America after a jury rejected the government's effort to put the Sept. 11 conspirator to death and instead decided to lock him away in prison for the rest of his life.

Moussaoui, who spent much of his two-month trial cursing America, blessing al-Qaida and mocking the suffering of 9/11 victims, offered one more taunt after the jury reached its verdict Wednesday: "America, you lost. ... I won," he proclaimed, clapping his hands as he was escorted from the courtroom.

Moussaoui gets one last chance to speak publicly Thursday when U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema sentences him to life in prison without the possibility of release for his part in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Barring an unforeseen circumstance, Moussaoui then will be sent to a super-maximum federal prison in Colorado under special conditions that will prevent him from having any contact with the outside world.

After seven days of deliberation, the nine men and three women rebuffed the government's appeal for death for the only person charged in this country in the suicide hijackings of four commercial jetliners that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

From the White House, President Bush said the verdict "represents the end of this case but not an end to the fight against terror." He said Moussaoui got a fair trial and the jury spared his life, "which is something that he evidently wasn't willing to do for innocent American citizens."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, attending a European Union security conference in Vienna, told reporters Thursday: "There are challenges that exist with respect to prosecuting terrorist cases in our system. I think justice was served in this case."

Families of 9/11 victims expressed mixed views.

Carie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, died on hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into New York's World Trade Center, said her mom didn't believe in the death penalty and would have been glad Moussaoui was sentenced to life. "This man was an al-Qaida wannabe ... who deserves to rot in jail."

Patricia Reilly, who lost her sister Lorraine Lee in the New York attacks, was deflated. "I guess in this country you can kill 3,000 people and not pay with your life," she said. "I feel very much let down by this country."

It is not known how many jurors wanted Moussaoui sentenced to life and how many wanted a death sentence. Under federal law, a defendant automatically receives life in prison when a jury is split. The 42-page verdict form gives no indication on how, or if, the jury split.

The jury rejected two key defense arguments — that Moussaoui suffers a mental illness and that executing him would make him a martyr. No jurors indicated on the verdict form that they gave any weight to those arguments.

Nine jurors found that Moussaoui suffered a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional family where he spent many of his early years in and out of orphanages. Three found that Moussaoui only played a minor role in 9/11.

Defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin said outside court that "it was obvious that they thought his role in 9/11 was not very great and that played a significant role in their decision."

Prosecutors, who pursued the Moussaoui case for 4 1/2 years, declared themselves satisfied with the jury's verdict.

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who was chief prosecutor in Alexandria in December 2001 when Moussaoui first was charged, noted that the jury in the trial's first phase found Moussaoui responsible for the 9/11 attacks by concealing the al-Qaida plot from FBI agents after he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations.

"It only takes one juror to reject imposition of the death penalty, and we respect that," McNulty said.

The trial put jurors on an emotional roller coaster and gave the 37-year-old Frenchman a platform to needle Americans and revel in the pain of the victims and their families.

When the verdict was announced, Moussaoui showed no visible reaction and sat slouched in his chair, refusing to stand with his defense team. He had declined to cooperate with his court-appointed lawyers throughout the trial.

The verdict was received with silence in the packed courtroom, where one row was lined with victims' families.

In their successful defense of Moussaoui, defense lawyers overcame the impact of two dramatic appearances by Moussaoui himself — first to renounce his four years of denying any involvement in the attacks and then to gloat over the pain of those who lost loved ones.

Using evidence gathered in the largest investigation in U.S. history, prosecutors achieved a preliminary victory last month when the jury ruled Moussaoui's lies to federal agents a month before the attacks made him eligible for the death penalty because they kept agents from discovering some of the hijackers.

But even with heart-rending testimony from nearly four dozen victims and their relatives — testimony that forced some jurors to wipe tears from their eyes — the jury was not convinced that Moussaoui, who was in jail on Sept. 11, deserved to die.

The case broke new ground in the understanding of Sept. 11, releasing to the public the first transcript and playing in court the cockpit tape of United Flight 93's last half hour. The tape captured the sounds of terrorists hijacking the aircraft over Pennsylvania and passengers trying to retake the jet until it crashed in a field.

Lexis · 05-04-2006, 06:45 AM

I read about the prison he's headed too in Colorado - a tiny room with a concret bed, stool and desk, solitary confinement for 23 hours a day - I think that'll hurt him worse than the death penalty. As the woman whose mother died on one of the planes said, he's a wannabe - and now he's gonna be sitting in his cell each day knowing that's he's no martyr and that Americans are controlling his whole life. I think that's a far worse punishment for someone like him than the escape of death.

**Avatar** · 05-04-2006, 08:56 AM

I agree with Lexis - Moussaoui is a wanna-be, garden-variety terrorist who thought of himself a lot more important than he in reality is, and I'm glad the jurors were sensible enough not to grant him the martyrdom that he sought.

Kiss_Me_Kate323 · 05-04-2006, 12:13 PM

I also conquer. Prison for life is the worst punishment, and he got what he deserved...

86amanda86 · 05-04-2006, 12:16 PM

I definitely think that he knew he was defeated and said that america lost because he's like an immature child and needed to get the last word in. He would have said that if they'd sentenced him to death too.

Lain · 05-04-2006, 12:28 PM

I didn't follow this story too much but the headline in my morning newspaper for this was: Moussaoui: "America, you lost!"

Prison life is as bad as getting the death sentence in my opinion.

86amanda86 · 05-04-2006, 12:41 PM

I say it's worse.

WalkingOnSunshine · 05-04-2006, 01:44 PM

I can only imagine what a hard case this was for the jurors to be assigned to. I can't say I agree with their decision, but I do understand it. I wish that they would have sentenced him to death, because the world will be a much better place without him in it - period. However, it was said on one of the news show that the jurors might have had a hard time giving a death sentence since he didn't directly kill someone. I think he will be made a martyr either way if/when his supporters feel it is needed.

**TheAngel** · 05-04-2006, 06:43 PM

Apparently the judge said something along the lines of, "You wanted to go out with a bang, now you're going out with a whimper."
Now I guess he has to wait 75 years to get his how ever many virgins he's supposed to get in heaven....hope Bubba's happy with his new girlfriend. I don't mind the death penalty, but in this case, he got what he deserves. But now his mom's lawyer is trying to get him back to France. I don't think it's going to happen.

Ms Carolyn · 05-04-2006, 07:51 PM

I agree with the person who said that he was tried in open court, in the eyes of the world, by an impartial jury that chose to spare his life. America didn't lose -- we won. As long as the U.S. conducts itself like that, it's living up to its potential to be a true haven of justice and enlightenment that the world would do well to emulate. If only we could do it more consistently!


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