They Got It Right

Moussaoui Given Life Term by Jury Over Link to 9/11

By NEIL A. LEWIS (NYT)
Published: May 4, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. May 3 — A federal jury rejected the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday, with some jurors concluding that he played only a minor role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The verdict, calling for life in prison, seemed to surprise most people in the courtroom, notably Justice Department prosecutors who had relentlessly urged the jurors that Mr. Moussaoui should be executed for his role in the attacks.

Yes, this was a surprise. But not an unpleasant one.

To detract attention from their shameful inability to find and capture the real guilty party—Osama Bin Laden—the government poured all their force into the Moussaoui trial. They desperately needed to make someone—anyone—the symbolic blood sacrifice to atone for the deaths of 2752 unsuspecting Americans on the morning of September 11, 2001. Think of the political mileage they could have wrung from the death of this one raving dark-skinned lunatic who had at best a tenuous connection to the events of 9/11, most of which was possibly his own personal fantasy.

But the jury wasn’t buying what the prosecution was selling. In a bold move to save the life of their client, who consistently ignored their counsel, verbally abused them, and publicly berated them throughout the proceedings, Moussaoui’s lawyers called upon 24 relatives of 9/11 victims to sit before the jury and give testimony for the defense in the penalty phase of the trial.

Robin Theurkauf, who lost her husband in the World Trade Center and testified for the defense , said in an interview she was surprised but gratified by the verdict.

Ms. Theurkauf, a divinity student at Yale, said that by showing the jury that some family members were not seeking Mr. Moussaoui's death, "We may have given them permission to free themselves from a(n) obligation to respond to the massive grief with vengeance. We allowed them to view the case dispassionately."

And the jury took that permission and ran with it.

Well done. We can only hope this is a sign that the mindless bloodlust of the American people, encouraged and exploited to the hilt by the Bush Administration, is at last abating.

| +Save/Share | |