Feel free to disagree but I have asked this question to many people and when given the choice between solitary confinement for 40 years and a relatively quick execution, they'd choose death.
That's easy to say as a hypothetical situation. In real life, almost nobody prefers death over life in prison.
Are the "many people" you've questioned on this on death row? It seems to me none of us would know for sure unless we were in their shoes.
All the people you asked probably never murdered anybody...
The point that you either do not understand, or are refusing to acknowledge, is that you, nor your "many people" are the terrorist, Moussaoui. What you and your "many people" may prefer is not an indicator of what Moussaoui prefers. He has made it quite clear that he feels he won today by getting life instead of death. What more information about his mindset could you possibly need??
Why do murderers on death row, who have been there for 20 years, always face the death chamber with anger/fear when the sentence is finally being carried out?
That is still 20 years short of your "life" sentence.
Or is it that "relatively quick" phrase? What is quick? A week? 2 years? 10 years?
After 2 years, it doesn't look so bad. After 10, it is "life" and you accept it (and even have learned some tricks about how to put some of it out of your mind).
Your are comparing freaking apples and oranges, this is about terrorisim, NOT some jerk down a streeet that killed a neighbor. Hellooooo!!!!! And even that should be a death penalty!!!