Moussaoui Verdict Shows Terrorism Planners How to Cheat Death Penalty (updated)

By Andrew Cochran

UPDATE, May 4: The complete court docket, with all publicly available motions, is here at the US Attorney's site. The judge agreed with the jury's recommendation and officially sentenced him to life in solitary imprisonment. Mousaoui railed against the CIA and yelled "God curse America! God save Osama Bin Laden - you will never get him!" in a tirade in a political statement at the sentencing.

I invite everyone to carefully review the redacted jury verdict form (Acrobat file posted on the website of the U.S. Attorney for the case). The replies to the questions provide a roadmap to future terrorism planners to kill thousands of Americans but avoid the death penalty (at least in the Eastern District of Virginia). Here's how:

1. Plan the attack so you can show the jury that each conspirator had "limited knowledge" of the total plan or play a "minor role - in other words, compartmentalize your attack just as Al Qaeda did with the 9-11 attack plans;

2. Take some time to persuade the conspirators that each had some combination of an "unstable early childhood and dysfunctional family," "a home life without structure," and a father with "a violent temper" who "physically and emotionally abused his family" such that your siblings "all suffered from psychotic illnesses" - and it doesn't matter that you aren't psychotic; after all, the Moussaoui jury found that he wasn't psychotic;

3. Coach each conspirator to complain, if caught, that they have been "subject to racism as a youngster" due to his Muslim background which "affected him deeply" - and count on the public defender to find jurors who are highly sensitive to any assertion of racism, because American public defenders always play the race card, and many Americans will excuse any act if the criminal has been "subject to racism";

4. If possible, conduct the attack in a state such as Virginia, in which the federal prisons are so good that your public defender can successfully argue that you won't be "a substantial risk to prison officials or other inmates if he is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release." In that way, you'll remain a potential pawn during any capture of an American overseas.

I appreciate the service of the Moussaoui jurors, but their verdict is a miscarriage of justice and a dangerous precedent. I am not a full-throated proponent of the death penalty, but Moussaoui should fry.

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