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.