US News
Jury clears way for Moussaoui death sentence
By Chris Cermak
Apr 4, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Alexandria, Virginia - Confessed September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui moved a decisive step closer to execution Monday when a US jury allowed a possible death sentence, finding that he could have prevented the attacks.

\'You will never get my blood,\' Moussaoui, 37, shouted after the 12-member jury left the courtroom following their unanimous preliminary verdict.

Jurors must now decide between execution and life in prison for the Frenchman of Moroccan descent - the only person to face trial in the United States on charges related to the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

By finding him eligible for execution on all three counts that carry that possible punishment, the jury signalled that their final decision may well be for the death sentence sought by prosecutors.

Prosecutors argue that the suicide hijackings against the World Trade Center\'s twin towers and the Pentagon defence headquarters could have been prevented if Moussaoui had revealed what he knew about the plot to FBI agents after his arrest, three weeks before the attacks.

To find him eligible for a death sentence, the jury had to conclude that the evidence against Moussaoui met several conditions - notably that, by lying, he was directly responsible for at least one of the nearly 3,000 deaths in the attacks on New York and Washington.

\'Zacarias Moussaoui came to this country to kill Americans. That was exactly what he did - he killed by lying,\' prosecutor David Raskin told jurors in closing arguments Wednesday.

After more than four years of an often tumultuous case, the jury took some 17 hours since Wednesday to reach its first decision.

\'By this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible penalty in this case,\' Edward Adams, a spokesman for the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, told reporters.

Moussaoui, wearing a green prison jumpsuit and white cap in court, pleaded guilty in April 2005 to six counts of conspiracy related to the September 11 attacks, three of which potentially carried the death penalty. His sentencing trial began March 6.

Both sides can again present evidence when the second phase of the sentencing trial begins Thursday. The case will now turn on testimony that is sure to be more personal and emotional than the legalistic arguments about culpability that dominated the first phase.

Prosecutors will seek to demonstrate the cruel and heinous nature of the crimes to which Moussaoui is has now been inextricably linked, while defence attorneys will argue for mitigating circumstances.

Relatives of September 11 victims are expected to testify, but family members interviewed Monday had mixed opinions about whether Moussaoui should die.

Alice Hoagland, whose son died on the September 11 flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, said she was persuaded by the government\'s case that the FBI could have stopped the attacks if Moussaoui had talked. But she argued against the death penalty.

\'Let that be the barbaric act of people who are outside the law, like Moussaoui,\' she told the Cable News Network (CNN). \'We as a civilized nation have a different mandate.\'

Executing Moussaoui would make him a martyr, Carrie Lemack, the daughter of a September 11 victim, told CNN.

\'He should rot in jail,\' she said.

Abraham Scott, whose wife died on the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon, said there was \'no question\' in his mind.

\'The only cure is to put him to death,\' he told reporters, fighting back tears.

The most stunning revelations of the trial came when Moussaoui took the stand March 27 against the advice of his court-appointed lawyers, whom he fought throughout the trial.

Moussaoui testified that when he was arrested on an immigration charge in August 2001, he knew of the two planes that were to fly into the World Trade Center.

He also said he was meant to fly a fifth plane into the White House on September 11, together with now-imprisoned \'shoe bomber\' Richard Reid.

Moussaoui has further undermined his case with frequent defiant outbursts, including \'God is great\' prior to the jury\'s entry Monday to the courtroom, and \'I am al-Qaeda\' during an earlier session.

The four-year case has been plagued by wrangling over the admissibility of evidence and allegations of government misconduct, as well as whether Moussaoui should be allowed to defend himself.

Court-appointed lawyers were eventually imposed on Moussaoui. Despite his objections to their work, the legal team spent the trial attempting to relay the ineffectiveness of the FBI in responding to the September 11 threat.

Harry Samit, the agent who first interrogated Moussaoui, said he had warned his superiors 70 times that Moussaoui was a threat yet was denied a warrant to search the belongings of the now-confessed al- Qaeda member.

Moussaoui\'s self-incriminating testimony last month gave the government a big lift, just when its handling of the case appeared to be floundering.