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"He clapped his hands as he was escorted away." Moussaoui gets life.
If you're in the shower and you drop the soap, don't bend to pick it up, martyr.
Tough position for this jury. On the one hand, the guy is evil. On the other hand, if you kill him you may be giving the enemy some fuel for the fire. You have to respect their situation and give them credit for doing their job.
For Moussaoui, still a rather young man, the time will pass slowly.
But he's nuts so he won't notice.
I'm a believer in the death penalty in some instances...in this case, however...as much as I believe he deserved it, I think the jury came back with a smart sentence. I wouldn't want this guy to die (a gentle death) thinking he was going to be a matyr.
I'm a believer in the death penalty in some instances...in this case, however...as much as I believe he deserved it, I think the jury came back with a smart sentence. I wouldn't want this guy to die (a gentle death) thinking he was going to be a martyr.
Oops...
Leigha's Conspiracy Theory #726: He wanted the public to think he wanted to die. That way, the jury would rebel against the possibility of propelling him into martyrdom, and give him life in prision instead. Life that he secretly wanted.
Possible.
I don't give this guy that much credit...from what I've read and heard...it doesn't sound like this guy was all too bright.
I know I'm going to catch flak from the Buds for this, but personally, as evil as he was/is, I don't think he deserved to die. Not by the definition of the law, anyway. My take on the law is that you can't sentence a man to die for something he DIDN'T do, especially when there was so much doubt about what he did or did not know. Not to mention the fact that anyone has the right to not incriminate themselves, and spilling his guts about his knowledge (whether he had it or not) of the attacks is certainly incriminating evidence.
He's evil -- yes. A monster -- sure. But if you're going to sentence someone to death, you better be damn sure of every single thing he or she is responsible for. The jury did the right thing.
He won't last any longer than Dahmer did. Probably less.
They're going to put him in a supermax though -- he'll have pretty much zero exposure to other inmates. The guy has a very, very boring life ahead of him. Some victory, dumbass.
He got busted. People saw that he was not up-and-up.
What about the other nineteen?
How were they so cool?
Word.
He's Bush's Patsy.
Nothing more.
And insane.
This entire trial was a CHARADE.
Word?
Really?
That doesn't work for me.
Why did those guys get by....and why have a few of them surfaced since?
If you think it was a "charade" set is straight, Raindog. Tell is what you know.
He's just upset because he's rooting for the terrorists.
Dtester, you're a retard and a troll.
The trial was a charade because the government was just trying to make us think it was being effective by putting Moussaoui to death. The government's case boiled down to "We should kill this guy because he refused to incriminate himself under interrogation."
Here is the relevant clause from the Fifth Amendment: "No person shall be ... compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."
Moussaoui was wrong. America did win here. It was the government that lost.
The government's case boiled down to "We should kill this guy because he refused to incriminate himself under interrogation."
But he did incriminate himself. To everyone's shock, he basically sang like a canary. The shocker in this case is that jurists who voted in phase 1 that he was responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people, voted in phase 2 that he wasn't. Strange.
The Atlantic (subsc req) had a great two page perspective on the Moussaoui trial which basically boiled down to two points.
First, it's a new kind of situation for American courts, and as such there's going to be bumps in the judicial process -- including adjustments for the downright wacky behavior of the defendant. Second, much like the Hussein trial, even though difficult, sticking to the judicial process is itself a victory.
I hope Saddam comes out ok ):
He's my favourite dictator in recent history, and he's just such a cute old man! Besides, the US made him what he is.
Which theory are we going with, was he the 20th 9/11 hijacker, part of some other plan, or just an al Qaeda wannabe who knew something?
All the way through, the prosecution's argument wasn't much stronger than "he was up to no good." They were lucky to get any sort of felony conviction, let alone the death penalty. Besides that, isn't it illegal to execute mentally deficient people? Apart from the fact that he's an insane, bumbling idiot, the guy has a business degree...
I think the death penalty is immoral. I also think it would have made him a legendary martyr throughout the world.
It's kind of hard to take his boasting very seriously too. If I was staring down the barrel of potentially 40-50 more years of my life in prison, I don't think any amount of bravado could make people think I was the one who came out on top.
He was convicted of lieing which lead to the deaths of people. You can get the death penalty for that? George W. Bush better watch his back!
I found the article in The Slate rather enlightening on this subject.
Besides that, isn't it illegal to execute mentally deficient people?
Nope.
Be sure to note who was governor of Texas at the time.
Terms like "death penalty" and "capital punishment" are just code words for what it really is: execution. Plenty of people deserve to die for their crimes, but I don't think it should be our governments making decisions of that magnitude.
I, too, resort to Slate, but with a different article.
We need to create a "culture of life", especially in Texas, between the years of 1994 and 2000...
Nagel.... not sure what you mean by your quesiton?
Why did those guys get by....and why have a few of them surfaced since?
are you referring to the other 19?
I'm guessing the first part...Why did those guys get by, was refering to the 19. The second part to other AQ cells in the USA.
It looks like the Moose will be heading here... The Alcatraz of the Rockies
I think that the defense team was right to say that he was off his rocker and probably schizophrenic. (I saw a blurb on CNN last night where they were going through the jury's checklist of things to vote on, and apparently they didn't believe this was the case, though. Apparently, they stopped short of the death penalty for other reasons.)
I'm having difficulty finding my old source, but I recall seeing an article where a flight instructor for Moussaoui (prior to his stint in Minnesota, was it in Nebraska?) recalled how he kept asking her all sorts of dumb questions about how to fly. She thought that he had no ability to remember what had occurred during the day. He kept asking her things late into the evening one day and she finally got sick of it, grabbed him by the shoulder or neck, and yelled something like "Moussaoui, you're crazy!"
His purported tasks for al Qaeda are also pretty suspect. Flying a plane into a prison to break out Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman? Later, "admitting" to the court that he was to hijack a plane with Richard Reid? He's also stated a firm belief that President Bush would pardon him after the trial. That alone could probably get someone institutionalized...
It's possible that he's just been putting on a show, though his family apparently has a history of alcoholism and mental illness.
Based on that description of Supermax, it does sound like torture. But when you find out that Richard Reid and Omar Abdel-Rahman are in the same joint... you don't want to see those two and Moussaoui playing canasta.
"Moussaoui, you're crazy!"
He will meet the exact same fate as Jeffrey Dahmer did and that sort of death is far from martyrdom.
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