Moussaoui can face death penalty, says terror jury

A US jury has found al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible to be executed and decided that his lies to FBI agents led directly to at least one death in the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.

Moussaoui, a French citizen, now faces a second phase of his sentencing trial for his role in the worst terrorist attacks against the US.

The nine men and three women of the jury sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, will hear testimony on whether the 37-year-old Frenchman, who was in jail at the time of the attack, deserves to be executed for his role.

The testimony will include families of September 11 victims who will describe the human impact of the al-Qaida mission that saw four airliners flown into the World Trade Centre, the Defence Department and a Pennsylvania field.

Court-appointed defence lawyers, whom Moussaoui has tried to reject, will summon experts to suggest he is schizophrenic after an impoverished childhood during which he faced racism in France over his Moroccan ancestry.

“By this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in this case,” court spokesman Ed Adams said yesterday.

On the key question before the jurors, they answered yes on whether at least one victim died on September 11 as a direct result of Moussaoui’s actions.

Moussaoui sat in his chair and prayed silently as the verdict was read. He refused to stand up to hear the verdict.

“You’ll never get my blood. God curse you all,” he said after the verdict.

Had the jury voted against his eligibility for the death penalty, Moussaoui would have been sentenced to life in prison.

The jury began deciding Moussaoui’s fate last Wednesday, asking only one question, seeking a definition of “weapon of mass destruction”. One of the three convictions for which Moussaoui could be executed is conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

The jurors were told that a plane used as a missile – the tactic employed on September 11 – qualified as a weapon of mass destruction.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty last April to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack aircraft and other crimes.

At the time he denied being part of the September 11 plot, saying he was being trained for a separate attack, but changed his story when he gave evidence and claimed he was to have flown a hijacked airliner into the White House that day.

Moussaoui was in jail at the time of the attacks, but prosecutors argue government agents would have been able to thwart, or at least minimise, the attacks if he had revealed his al-Qaida membership and his terrorist plans when he was arrested and interrogated.

Hamilton Peterson, whose father Donald and stepmother Jean died on Flight 93 when it crashed in Pennsylvania, was outside the courtroom.

“I am grateful to the jury for having made that decision and I feel confident in light of Moussaoui’s own testimony that it is the right decision and look forward to the next phase of the case and the final determination of execution,” he said.

The forewoman said the jury was unanimous on all four aspects of each of the three counts against Moussaoui – conspiracy to commit international terrorism, to destroy aircraft and to use weapons of mass destruction.

On each count the jurors found the defendant was 18 or older at the time of the offence, intentionally lied to federal agents on August 16-18, 2001, and did so “contemplating the life of a person would be taken or intending that lethal force would be used”. They determined at least one person died on September 11 as a direct result of the lies.

Rosemary Dillard, whose husband Eddie died in the attacks, said she felt a sense of vindication from the verdict.

“This man has no soul, has no conscience,” she said of Moussaoui. “What else could we ask for but this?”

Abraham Scott, who lost his wife Janice Marie on September 11, said: “I describe him like a dog with rabies, one that cannot be cured. The only cure is to put him or her to death.”

But Scott said he blamed the government equally “for not acting on certain indicator that could have prevented September 11 happening”.