Moussaoui Deprived of Constitutional Rights, Attorneys Say

Washington Post ^ | February 16, 2008 | Jerry Markon

[3AngelaD]

Zacarias Moussaoui's guilty plea and life prison term for conspiring in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks should be overturned because his case was riddled with errors that deprived him of his constitutional rights, his attorneys said in court papers unsealed yesterday. In their opening brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, the attorneys said Moussaoui could not choose his own counsel at trial or learn much of the evidence against him because it was secret.

"Moussaoui faced the choice between pleading guilty and facing a fundamentally unfair trial in a death-penalty case. This was an unconstitutional choice, and his plea was involuntary as a result,'' the attorneys, Justin S. Antonipillai and Barbara L. Hartung, wrote in the redacted...document. The document asks the 4th Circuit to void Moussaoui's guilty plea and order a new trial or, if the plea stands, to send the case back to a federal judge in Alexandria for re-sentencing.

"Are federal courts willing to compromise or eliminate constitutional protections if the indictment arises in the context of a terrorism case?'' the appeal asks.

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria yesterday declined to comment. Their reply brief has not been filed.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty in 2005 to taking part in a broad al-Qaeda conspiracy to crash planes into U.S. buildings that led to the Sept. 11 attacks. He is the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon...He is now serving a life term.

In their brief, the attorneys acknowledged that Moussaoui, who was arrested more than three weeks before Sept. 11, after his behavior aroused suspicion at a Minnesota flight school, is an admitted member of al-Qaeda and became "one of the most reviled people in America.''

[3AngelaD]

Guy is just lucky he wasn't executed. Remember the sob stories the Wash Post and NY Times ran about him before his trial, featuring his poor, old mother, who lives in France, talking about her baby's innocence?

[Digital Sniper]

And let us not forget that McCain seeks to give all terror suspects the same rights as American citizens...along with closing Guantanamo Bay.

[DefeatHitlery08]

Let’s forget the fact that he consipired to kill 3,000 people...Ban the ACLU now!

[sauropod]

"Moussaoui faced the choice between pleading guilty and facing a fundamentally unfair trial in a death-penalty case. This was an unconstitutional choice, and his plea was involuntary as a result,'' the attorneys, Justin S. Antonipillai and Barbara L. Hartung, wrote in the redacted...document.

Wasn't Moussawi of French and Moroccan citizenship and descent or am I remembering incorrectly?

How can he be deprived of "constitutional rights" when he is not a US Citizen?

[Brilliant]

Deprived of the Constitutional right to kill. It’s encompassed within the Ninth Amendment.

[egginanest]

“Are federal courts willing to compromise or eliminate constitutional protections if the indictment arises in the context of a terrorism case?”

Fine by me.

[TCats]

This crap fits right into to their Grand Plan. Cripple our economy, exploit differences, terrorize citizenry. IMO The F**k’n Attorneys are just another behind the lines Brigade of the Enemy.

[econjack]

"Are federal courts willing to compromise or eliminate constitutional protections if the indictment arises in the context of a terrorism case?'' the appeal asks.

The courts probably are not so willing...but I am.

[Steely Tom]

This is right out of Saul Alinksy's Rules for Radicals.

[FR Class of 1998]

If this were WWII, he would have been interrogated then executed as a spy.

[Digital Sniper]

Ban the ACLU now!

No argument from me! No organization that considers the Boy Scouts to be a bigger threat to our nation than NAMBLA should be permitted continued existence.

[Paleo Conservative]

Excuse me, but why was he going to be tried in a civilian court? He should have been tried by a military tribunal just as the German saboteurs and spies who were caught in the US in 1942 were.

[steelyourfaith]

Deprived of his Moroccan constitutional rights?

Heaven forfend !

[SAJ]

Unfortunately, courts have ruled for a couple of hundred years that foreign scumbags have the same rights at trial as do Americans.

Mind you, I think that that's utterly asinine, but that's the way the lawyers say it is.

[3AngelaD]

French citizen, Moroccan descent, traveled here on false documents provided by Malaysian Al Qaeda, activities funded by Al Qaeda in Dusseldorf and Hamburg. If he had stayed in France, he would have been one of those “youths” burning cars.

[I see my hands]

I can only figure 9/11 didn't leave a sufficient mark on these libs and anti Americans. After the next attack visiting them with personal consequences may cement the event in their consciousness.

[melt]

Deprived of the Constitutional right to kill.It’s encompassed within the Ninth Amendment.

It's encompassed in the 9/11th Amendment...

[Friend_from_the_Frozen_North]

"Wasn't Moussawi of French and Moroccan citizenship and descent or am I remembering incorrectly?"

I think you are correct. So what Constitutional Rights does he have under either a French or a Moroccan Constitutions (if such a thing exists and if he were in the custody of either France or Morocco)?

Seems I remember hearing somewhere that under French Jurisprudence, "You are considered guilty until proved innocent." Let him rot in prison forever!

[Reily]

Again this all goes back to Bush not asking for a declaration of war ! By not doing so, we are stuck in this murky legal area.
The Bush administration stupidly started this by prosecuting Moussaoui through the civil legal system.

Now are we fighting a war or are we fighting a crime wave?
If we treat as a crime problem (as the democrats want to do!) then get used to hearing on the national news how terrorists have more civil rights then citizens!