Gruesome images from 9/11 introduced in Moussaoui trial

PROSECUTORS seeking Zacarias Moussaoui’s execution introduced gruesome evidence of the horrors of terrorism yesterday, showing pictures of burned and blackened bodies from the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon.

Over the objections of defence attorneys and despite warnings by a federal judge that such a strategy could backfire, government lawyers displayed for jurors the most gut-wrenching evidence yet in a sentencing trial studded with one horrific image after another.

The photos were of the attack at the Defence Department, very near where the jurors are sitting. Each picture was displayed for just a few seconds each. They showed mostly intact bodies with facial features still discernible. One torso, covered with white ash, looked more like an ancient statue.

“Burn all Pentagon next time,” a defiant Moussaoui shouted as he was led out of the courtroom for a lunch break.

The photos were introduced as prosecutors completed their presentation of victim impact testimony specifically about the September 11 deaths at the World Trade Center in New York.

Earlier, a September 11 widow wrung out for jurors the emotional residue of terrorism.

Wendy Cosgrove, 48, of Long Island, NY, testified about the impact of her husband Kevin’s death when he was trapped on the 105th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Ms Cosgrove said the couple’s oldest son, who was 12 on September 11, 2001 has become angry and self destructive and had some scrapes with the law.

The couple’s middle child, who was nine on September 11, 2001, has been mutilating herself and is undergoing therapy, she said.

On Monday, jurors heard a 911 tape of Kevin as he told the dispatcher, “I’m not ready to die”.

Much of the tape was muffled and nearly inaudible except at the very end when he screamed “Oh God, no!” and the call went dead.

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has urged prosecutors to show restraint, but it has proved difficult to blunt the emotional impact as families of 9/11 victims tell their stories to jurors in Moussaoui’s death-penalty trial. Moussaoui is the only person charged in the US in connection with the September 11 attacks.

Even though he was in jail in Minnesota at the time of the attacks, the jury in Moussaoui’s trial ruled that lies he told to federal agents a month before the attacks kept the authorities from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers.

Defence lawyers say the jury should spare Moussaoui’s life because of his limited role in the attacks, evidence that he is mentally ill and because his execution would only play into his dream of martyrdom.