Moussaoui jury sees gruesome 9/11 pictures

Jurors weighing the fate of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui viewed gruesome photographs of bodies burned inside the Pentagon and heard from two determined military officers who crawled almost blindly to safety through falling debris, choking smoke and searing heat.

Despite Judge Leonie Brinkema’s warning on Monday that too much highly emotional evidence could imperil a death sentence on appeal, prosecutors showed the most gut-wrenching evidence yet in a trial replete with horrific images.

Yesterday’s images came from the mammoth military headquarters just a few miles from the courtroom where Moussaoui’s fate is being determined.

In the third day of testimony from relatives of 9/11 victims, the jurors showed little emotion.

One man discreetly wiped his face with a tissue; on earlier days as many as six of the 17 jurors and alternates did so.

Prosecutors displayed photos of a charred body on a blue stretcher, another charred body sitting upright inside a wrecked Pentagon office, several charred bodies piled together inside another destroyed office and a small torso covered with ash on a blue stretcher.

The mostly intact bodies had barely discernible facial features.

Each picture was displayed for a few seconds. Within minutes, the jury left for lunch.

Moments later, with judge and jury gone, Moussaoui defiantly shouted to spectators as he was led out: “Burn all Pentagon next time.”

Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with al-Qaida to fly planes into US buildings.

A week ago, the jurors ruled him eligible for the death penalty even though he was in jail in Minnesota on 9/11.

They decided that lies he told federal agents a month before the attacks led directly to at least one death that day by keeping agents from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers.

Now they must decide whether he deserves execution or life in prison

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 execution would fulfil his dream of martyrdom.

The defence has subpoenaed would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid, serving life in Colorado after a failed try to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001.

In a surprise, Moussaoui testified Reid was to help him fly a fifth plane on 9/11 into the White House.

In a sealed brief, the government opposed the subpoena for Reid. Later in the day, Brinkema ordered that someone be brought to court for possible testimony, without saying who it was but she issued a writ normally used to produce people who are in custody so it seemed likely it was Reid.