Moussaoui Jurors Reject Death Penalty For Admitted Al-Qaeda Conspirator

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=moussaoui5306%2Ehtm

May 3, 2006 - Alexandria, VA - PipeLineNews.org - In what must constitute comforting news for American al-Qaeda sleeper cells, the nine member Alexandria Virginia jury having spent 40 hours deliberating Zacarias Moussaoui's fate, has reached the conclusion that the French-born terrorist's crimes do not merit his execution.

Despite Moussaoui having pled guilty to six terror charges, his repeated and incriminating taunts and outbursts throughout the trial and the entering into evidence for the first time of the contents of flight 93's cockpit recorder - to place Moussaoui's crimes in perspective - the jury was unmoved by the government prosecution team's demand for the death penalty.

As Moussaoui was being led away today he smiled, clapped his hands and quipped, "America, you lost, I won."

There is most certainly great truth in that statement.

This verdict ultimately validates the fact that there is no "lesson" of 911 and that America has learned nothing in the ensuing 4 years.

A nation unwilling to destroy vermin like Moussaoui is a nation incapable of defending itself.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4943196.stm

Moussaoui is spared death penalty

Moussaoui's courtroom testimony has often been contradictory

The prosecution had called for the death sentence, arguing that "there is no place on this good Earth" for him.

But defence lawyers successfully argued he should face life in prison, rather than martyrdom through execution.

As the verdict was read out, Moussaoui, the only man to be prosecuted over 9/11, shouted: "America, you lost!"

During six weeks of testimony in a Virginia court, prosecutors had argued he withheld information that could have helped prevent the attacks on New York and Washington.

Under cross-examination, Moussaoui said he had "no regret, no remorse" and wished it could be 11 September 2001 every day.

Moussaoui was arrested on immigration charges at a flight simulator school in Minnesota in August 2001.

Although he was in jail at the time of the attacks, prosecutors say he told lies to allow the plot to continue.

'Minor role'

The verdict in favour of life imprisonment was not unanimous, but full details of the vote have not been made public.

The greater value I think would have been if he was executed - but the greater value is demonstrating what America is like... America won tonight Rudolph Giuliani Former mayor of New York In quotes: Moussaoui verdict

But Moussaoui received the sentence nonetheless because under US law, all members of a jury must be in agreement where a death sentence is to be handed down.

Jurors did unanimously reject the suggestion - put forward by Moussaoui's defence - that the death penalty would help fulfil the defendant's visions of martyrdom.

Three jurors felt his knowledge of the 9/11 plot was limited and three jurors said that if he was involved in the attacks, his role was a minor one.

According to BBC correspondent Matt Frei, the government effectively lost the case.

He says the prosecution failed to demonstrate to jurors that Moussaoui had known the whole truth about the attacks beforehand - and that had he told the truth, the attacks would have been prevented.

'America won tonight'

Carrie Lemack, whose mother died aboard one of the aircraft hijacked on 9/11, said after the verdict that Moussaoui had got the sentence he deserved.

"He was an al-Qaeda wannabe. He wanted to kill Americans," she said.

Moussaoui was arrested in the US weeks before the 9/11 attacks

The verdict clearly upset one of the jurors, according to BBC correspondent James Coomarasamy.

Many of the victims' families were not happy with the verdict - though others said they were relieved Moussaoui had not been allowed to become a martyr.

The former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, who was in the city at the time of the attacks and testified in Moussaoui's trial, said a death sentence ought to have been passed on a man who lied to investigators about the plot.

"If he'd told the truth he could have prevented it. For me, that would make him a material and very important part of the conspiracy," Mr Giuliani said.

But, he added, the verdict had re-enforced his faith in the US justice system.

"The greater value is demonstrating what America is like, he said. "America won tonight."

US President George W Bush said the verdict presented "the end of this case but not an end to the fight against terror".