Posted on 06/26/2002 11:26:42 PM PDT by glorygirl
Oh, man, Denver can't win for losing.
First the Avs are knocked out of the NHL playoffs by some team whose name we forget but whose motto, if Avs fans are to be believed, rhymes with "bed springs buck."
Then the drought turns our mountain playgrounds into tinderboxes.
And now a mean old federal judge in Virginia refuses to move the trial of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui to Denver.
Well, on second thought, one out of three ain't bad.
We confess to having been less than thrilled when Moussaoui, the accused 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 atrocities, asked to move his trial to Denver. Officially, Moussaoui said he preferred Denver as the trial venue because security is better and because of Denver's "fresh air."
As to the air, Zacarias, we refer you to the above-cited comment about our mountain wildfires. Actress Tallulah Bankhead once boasted that her morals were "as pure as the driven slush," and we grudgingly concede that description is apt for our smoke-filled skies.
No, we think it's obvious that the real reason Moussaoui wanted his trial moved to Denver is simple:
He has never heard of federal judge Richard Matsch.
Judge Matsch is best known for having tried Timothy McVeigh, an indigenous American predecessor to Moussaoui at the terrorist trade. And when McVeigh left Matsch's courtroom, he was gurney-bound.
McVeigh's stablemate, Terry Nichols, did escape the death penalty in Matsch's courtroom. But that was due to a better defense and a lower degree of culpability on Nichols' part, not on any weakness on the part of the trial judge.
Thus, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema probably did Moussaoui a favor when she denied his request to move his trial from Alexandria, Va., to Denver. After telling Moussaoui that "you don't control the courtroom," Brinkema entered a "not guilty" plea for the defendant, rejecting his inchoate demand for a "no contest" plea that would have virtually guaranteed his conviction. She then rejected his claim that he could not obtain an impartial jury from the northern Virginia area.
Oh, shucky durn. That means Denver, having endured both the McVeigh and Nichols trials, and the trial of Alan Berg's murderers in another incident of domestic terrorism, won't get a front-row seat as Moussaoui continues his amateurish attempt at legal suicide.
We'll miss you, Zacarias.
About like we missed being left out of the anthrax attacks.
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