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'Al-Qaeda wannabe'
04/05/2006 15:33 - (SA)
Alexandria - After listening to six weeks of argument, tears and revelations, more of the jurors who spared Zacarias Moussaoui's life were moved by the confessed al-Qaeda conspirator's turbulent, deprived childhood than by claims that he was a delusional psychotic seeking martyrdom.
In rejecting execution, some of the nine men and three women, drawn from the suburbs of the nation's capitol near the terrorist-targeted Pentagon, also seemed to be swayed by the limits of his role in the deadliest terror attacks in the nation's history.
The jury could not agree unanimously on government contentions that the 37-year-old Frenchman, who was in jail on September 11 2001, caused the deaths of the nearly 3 000 people who died that day, or that he acted in a heinous, cruel or depraved manner. Three of them even made a point of writing that, despite Moussaoui's dramatic testimony claiming to be a part of the plot, he had limited knowledge of the plans for the suicide jetliner hijackings of 9/11.
Jurors slipped away
The extraordinary 42-page verdict form in this sentencing trial, with its lists of aggravating and mitigating evidence, provided clues to the thought processes the jury engaged in hours of deliberations over seven days. But the jurors slipped away from the courthouse without speaking to reporters, so how much weight they gave each factor remained unknown.
The verdict form said only that they could not agree unanimously on execution and thus Moussaoui had to be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of release. There was no word on exactly how many voted for life and how many for death.
The jury did not reach the unanimity required for a death sentence against the man who claimed a direct role in the September 11 attacks even though he was in jail at the time on immigration charges.
In Paris, Moussaoui's mother, Aicha El Wafi, told France-Info radio: "I feel nothing. I am dead, because my son was wrongly convicted."
Her lawyer, Patrick Baudouin, expressed delight that the jury did not hand down a death penalty for Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent and the only person charged in the United States over the September 11 attacks. Baudouin vowed an "unrelenting" legal battle to bring Moussaoui home.
Moussaoui crowed on leaving court after the 15-minute hearing: "America, you lost. ... I won."
'A wannabe'
Some victims' families said he got what he deserved.
Carie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, died on hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Centre, said her mom did not believe in the death penalty and would have been glad Moussaoui was sentenced to life. "This man was an al-Qaeda wannabe who could never put together the 9/11 attacks," Lemack said. "He's a wannabe who deserves to rot in jail."
But 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."
From the White House, President George W 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."
The verdict came after four years of legal manoeuvring and six weeks of testimony that put jurors on an emotional roller coaster and gave Moussaoui a platform to needle Americans and relish the pain of the victims and their families.
Justice was done
Judge Leonie Brinkema was to hand down the life sentence on Thursday morning, bound by the jury's verdict. Offering assurance to the losing side, she told prosecutors: "The government always wins when justice is done." Moussaoui smiled at that.
The outcome was a stinging defeat for the Justice Department and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, a former federal prosecutor in Alexandria who was overseeing the case. He said afterward, "The jury has spoken, and we respect and accept that verdict."
Moussaoui is expected to spend the rest of his life at the federal maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado.
During the trial, no one disputed that Moussaoui came to the United States intending to do harm and that he received flight training toward that goal. But his lawyers contended he was an al-Qaeda outcast who was not trusted with the knowledge of the September 11 plot.
No big role in 9/11
Outside the courthouse, defence attorney Gerald Zerkin said of the jurors: "It was obvious that they thought his role in 9/11 was not very great, and that played a significant role in their decision."
The verdict was received with silence in the packed courtroom, where one row was lined with victims' families.
The jurors were divided on the 23 mitigating factors in the case: None was moved by the fact that top al-Qaeda operatives in US custody are not facing death penalty prosecutions, but three cited racism that Moussaoui faced as a child of Moroccan descent.
In their successful defence of Moussaoui, his lawyers revealed new levels of pre-attack bungling of intelligence by the FBI and other government agencies. By the trial's end, the defence team was portraying its unco-operative client as a delusional schizophrenic. They argued he took the witness stand to confess a role in September 11 that he never had - all to achieve martyrdom through execution or for recognition in history.
They 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.
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