US News
Giuliani recalls September 11 at conspirator\'s death penalty trial
By Chris Cermak
Apr 6, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Alexandria, Virginia - Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani gave graphic testimony about the September 11 attacks Thursday at court hearings to determine whether confessed conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui should be executed.

Giuliani, who was mayor when suicide pilots flew two US jetliners into the World Trade Center, was the first scheduled witness as the sentencing phase in Moussaoui\'s sentence began.

Moussaoui, 37, faces death or life in prison. He pleaded guilty last year to six counts of conspiracy related to the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on the US, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Giuliani relived that morning for the 12-member jury, most viscerally when he described seeing people jump out of the mangled, flaming twin towers to their death.

\'My eyes just caught a man ... and I realized that I was watching this man throw himself off, fleeing the flames and smoke. I froze,\' Giuliani testified.

Most harrowing, he said, was seeing two people jump who appeared to be holding hands.

\'That memory, of all memories that stuck in your mind, comes back to me every day,\' Giuliani said.

Jurors also were shown videos of people jumping and of each plane hitting the twin towers.

To bolster their effort to secure a death sentence, federal prosecutors are expected to seek testimony from up to 40 family members of victims and to play recordings of frantic calls to New York emergency services after the planes hit the towers.

The jury will also hear the previously unreleased cockpit voice recording of Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers rose up against the hijackers. The fourth plane hit the Pentagon military headquarters just outside Washington.

In opening remarks Thursday, prosecutor Robert Spencer told the jury, \'You will hear about the horror of the murders and the enormity of the attacks. Those voices, that evidence will be all you need.\'

Prosecutors allege that Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan descent, contributed to the September 11 carnage because he withheld knowledge of plot after his arrest three weeks before the attacks.

To obtain a death sentence, prosecutors must prove that Moussaoui was responsible for at least one death on September 11. In a key step Monday, the jury found him eligible to be executed.

In stunning testimony last month, Moussaoui said he knew of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center and claimed he was meant to fly a fifth plane into the White House on September 11. He also admitted he lied to FBI agents about the plot.

His court-appointed defence team, whose advice he has generally refused, have sought to cast doubt on his mental soundness.

Lawyer Gerald Zerkin said Thursday that Moussaoui appeared to be schizophrenic and urged jurors to consider \'the possibility of a sentence less than death.\'