America, you lost … I won: Moussaoui

Zacarias Moussaoui claimed victory over America after a jury rejected the government’s effort to put the September 11 conspirator to death and instead decided to lock him away in prison for the rest of his life.

Zacarias Moussaoui claimed victory over America after a jury rejected the government’s effort to put the September 11 conspirator to death and instead decided to lock him away in prison for the rest of his life.

Moussaoui, who spent much of his two-month trial cursing America, blessing Al-Qaeda and mocking the suffering of September 11 victims, offered one more taunt after the jury reached its verdict on Wednesday: “America, you lost… I won,” he proclaimed, clapping his hands as he was escorted from the courtroom.

Moussaoui gets one last chance to speak publicly on Thursday when US District Judge Leonie Brinkema sentences him to life in prison without the possibility of release for his part in the worst terrorist attack in US history.

Barring an unforeseen circumstance, Moussaoui then will be sent to a super-maximum federal prison in Colorado under special conditions that will prevent him from having any contact with the outside world.

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 9/11.

From the White House, President George 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.”

Carie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, died on hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into New York’s World Trade Centre, 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-Qaeda wannabe … who deserves to rot in jail.”

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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 verdict form gives no indication on how, or if, the jury split.

The jury rejected two key defence 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 the September 11 attacks.

–MATTHEW BARAKAT & MICHAEL J SNIFFEN