Moussaoui jurors hear from families of 9/11 victims

The judge has urged prosecutors to show restraint, but it has proved difficult to blunt the emotional impact as families of 9/11 victims tell their tales to jurors in the US death-penalty trial of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

The jury in Alexandria, Virginia, has heard painful testimony from more than 20 witnesses already, but that has done little to inoculate against the emotional impact of each story. Each witness has some cruel twist to tell on the familiar story of loss.

One man told how his wife and brother by rotten coincidence found themselves in the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001. Both were killed.

He also described how he cannot bear to see his wife’s identical twin because of the memories that come flooding back.

Elaine Hughes of Long Island, who lost a son on 9/11, testified that her husband wants his tombstone to read “that he died of a broken heart” from his son’s death.

Some jurors have struggled to maintain composure. One asked for a drink of water toward the end of yesterday’s testimony after a day in which his face frequently showed the strain of hearing families’ accounts.

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema, usually a stickler for keeping the trial running until 5.30pm, has allowed court to close early during the victim-impact testimony.

“It is an understatement to say this is difficult testimony,” Brinkema told jurors yesterday afternoon.

She earlier had warned prosecutors not to overplay emotional testimony and reminded them that appellate judges could overturn a death sentence if they believed such testimony was overly prejudicial.

Prosecutors said they scaled back some testimony. They have also frequently reminded the judge that they are presenting testimony from only a tiny fraction of those affected by the nearly 3,000 deaths that day.

So far, prosecutors are about halfway through the 45 victim-impact witnesses they plan to present to the jury. They intend to close their case tomorrow.

Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is the only person charged in the US in connection with the September 11 attacks. The jury deciding his fate has already declared him eligible for the death penalty by determining that his actions caused at least one death on 9/11.

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

Now they must decide whether Moussaoui deserves execution or life in prison.

Defence lawyers hope the jury will spare Moussaoui’s life because of his limited role in the attacks, evidence of mental illness and because they say his execution would only fuel his dream of martyrdom.