Posted on 05/04/2006 7:43:26 AM PDT by MizSterious
By MATTHEW BARAKAT and MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writers 8 minutes ago
An unrepentant Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, warning Americans in his final public words that they would never catch Osama bin Laden.
The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema at the end of a two-month trial in which the jury rejected the government's case to have Moussaoui executed.
"God save Osama bin Laden — you will never get him," Moussaoui declared moments after walking into the courtroom flashing a victory sign.
"You have branded me as a terrorist or a criminal or whatever," he said. "Look at yourselves. I fight for my belief." He spoke for less than five minutes; the judge told him he could not use his sentencing to make a political speech.
Barring an unforeseen circumstance, Moussaoui then will be sent to a maximum federal prison in Colorado under special conditions that will prevent him from having any contact with the outside world.
French authorities said Thursday they may eventually press the United States to have Moussaoui serve his life sentence in France under two conventions on the transfer of convicts. They were waiting to hear the conditions of his sentencing.
Moussaoui's mother Aicha El Wafi, pressed for her country to intervene. "My son will be buried alive because France didn't dare contradict the Americans," she said.
After seven days of deliberation, the nine men and three women rebuffed the government's appeal for death for the only person charged in this country in the suicide hijackings of four commercial jetliners that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
Moussaoui, who spent much of his two-month trial cursing America, blessing al-Qaida and mocking the suffering of 9/11 victims, offered one more taunt after the jury reached its verdict Wednesday saying, "America, you lost. ... I won," and clapping his hands as he was escorted from the courtroom.
From the White House, President 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."
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, attending a European Union security conference in Vienna, told reporters Thursday: "There are challenges that exist with respect to prosecuting terrorist cases in our system. I think justice was served in this case."
Families of 9/11 victims expressed mixed views.
Carie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, died on hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into New York's World Trade Center, said her mom didn't believe in the death penalty and would have been glad Moussaoui was sentenced to life. "This man was an al-Qaida wannabe ... who deserves to rot in jail."
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."
It is not known how many jurors wanted Moussaoui sentenced to life and how many wanted a death sentence. Under federal law, a defendant automatically receives life in prison when a jury is split. The 42-page verdict form gives no indication on how, or if, the jury split.
The jury rejected two key defense arguments — that Moussaoui suffers a mental illness and that executing him would make him a martyr. No jurors indicated on the verdict form that they gave any weight to those arguments.
Nine jurors found that Moussaoui suffered a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional family where he spent many of his early years in and out of orphanages. Three found that Moussaoui only played a minor role in 9/11.
Defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin said outside court that "it was obvious that they thought his role in 9/11 was not very great and that played a significant role in their decision."
Prosecutors, who pursued the Moussaoui case for 4 1/2 years, declared themselves satisfied with the jury's verdict.
Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who was chief prosecutor in Alexandria in December 2001 when Moussaoui first was charged, noted that the jury in the trial's first phase found Moussaoui responsible for the 9/11 attacks by concealing the al-Qaida plot from FBI agents after he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations.
"It only takes one juror to reject imposition of the death penalty, and we respect that," McNulty said.
The trial put jurors on an emotional roller coaster and gave the 37-year-old Frenchman a platform to needle Americans and revel in the pain of the victims and their families.
When the verdict was announced, Moussaoui showed no visible reaction and sat slouched in his chair, refusing to stand with his defense team. He had declined to cooperate with his court-appointed lawyers throughout the trial.
The verdict was received with silence in the packed courtroom, where one row was lined with victims' families.
In their successful defense of Moussaoui, defense lawyers 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.
Using evidence gathered in the largest investigation in U.S. history, prosecutors achieved a preliminary victory last month when the jury ruled Moussaoui's lies to federal agents a month before the attacks made him eligible for the death penalty because they kept agents from discovering some of the hijackers.
But even with heart-rending testimony from nearly four dozen victims and their relatives — testimony that forced some jurors to wipe tears from their eyes — the jury was not convinced that Moussaoui, who was in jail on Sept. 11, deserved to die.
The case broke new ground in the understanding of Sept. 11, releasing to the public the first transcript and playing in court the cockpit tape of United Flight 93's last half hour. The tape captured the sounds of terrorists hijacking the aircraft over Pennsylvania and passengers trying to retake the jet until it crashed in a field.
Let him rot at the colorado supermax.
Check out some of his new neighbors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Federal_Supermax_Prisoners_at_Florence,_Colorado
Yup, if only we had a time machine.......
It's not "the US" so much, it's the people. They're too liberal now.
I'm tired of pandering to "the American people", and that includes conservative radio hosts pontificating about how politicians are not doing what "the American people" want. Too many of them are commie pinkos. How is it that the last 2 presidential elections were so close if not?
We need to stop pretending that "really, MOST Americans are conservative" and start calling "THE PEOPLE" on the carpet - not just the politicians THEY ELECTED.
Because only liberals and their weak-kneed conservative ilk too influenced by the former could back down and get faint-hearted about killing an !$#@$@# who intended to help kill thousands of people at once.
Let's just drive him around Anbar province in an unending convoy waiting for IED's. Maybe that should be the next stop for anyone caught in the WOT after we done with them.
It's simple logic and the facts. Not hyperbole and rationalization.
I view your statements as "eye for a eye" rationalization. As if somehow, he should die for what others did, only because he supports what was done.
We could execute many college professors with that logic.
There must be a solid link of actions and intent before you can execute someone for a crime. In this case, he was only a wannabee terrorist and the proper thing to do is to remove him from society in perpetuity.
This is what they did.
I hope you're wrong, but I doubt you are. As for the French, I think they keep the white flag factories working three shifts a day--after all, they're also providing them for the Spanish government, in case they're ever attacked again.
So in the end, what did he actually do?
We don't execute people for intent. Not here, not anywhere but third world counties.
It would have set our justice system back to the days of the Salem Witch trials.
In my bank robbing scenario, "in the end, what did I do"? Plenty, according to the law. We do, in fact, execute people for intent, or even the lack of it (bankrobber wheel-people don't usually "intend" to kill anyone--this guy did). The man not only intended, but worked hard to implement his intent. That he messed up and landed in jail before the main event is irrelevant. He worked towards that goal, and deserves to die for it.
It's really sad when you have to rely on the CRIMINALS in this country to "do the right thing". Plain old Americans have no proper sense of justice any more - thanks to watering down our republic via communist ideals. That includes too many "conservatives".
My guess is that we will have bin laden and his thugs, in short time.
I agree with everything you have said. The prosecution just didn't make the case for death in my opinion. This nutball is going to a verrrrrry bad place. A 12 by 12 cell, concrete bed, one slit window for daylight, way up, so he can't even look out of it. And he will never get to go outside. No martyrdom for the Al-Quaeda pizza gopher...It's justice to me.
You must believe his bull to believe that.
We have many of their big fish in captivity. None have been traded.
You and Moussauwi have been watching too many movies on TV. That stuff is pure Hollywood.
I understand the conspiracy argument, but he was convicted of that, and sentenced to life.
I know of no instance where we executed someone for intent alone. They have to be closely associated with the actual crime and this guy was a outside stringer and in prison at the time of the act. he was not involved in the planning, nor the execution.
Richard Reed did way more than he did. I did not hear all this exasperation during his case?
If you didn't hear "all this exasperation" then you weren't paying attention.
when does rita cosby or geraldo get to interview him?
Ditto to you, here.
They can't extradite Timothy McVey.
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