Jury deliberates Moussaoui's fate over 9/11

Zacarias Moussaoui’s fate was tonight placed in the hands of a US jury that will decide whether he is to be executed over the deaths of September 11, 2001.

Jurors in Virginia have opened deliberations after final pleadings – from the prosecution to “put an end to his hatred and venom” by opting for execution - and from the defence to spare him the martyr’s death he seeks and send him to prison for life.

The jury already decided in four days of deliberations this month that Moussaoui, 37, the only man the US has charged over the September 11 terror attacks, was responsible for deaths that day, even though he was in jail hundreds of miles away. That qualified him for the death penalty. The question now before jurors is whether he deserves to be sentenced to die.

Moussaoui has been unrepentant throughout the legal drama.

He has publicly relished the results of the attacks, mocked victims and their families, insulted his lawyers and yet insisted he did not want to die. During a recess in closing arguments, Moussaoui said: “Our children will carry on the fight.”

Prosecutor David Raskin urged the jurors to reject defence arguments that Moussaoui is mentally ill and to brush off any hesitation that they would be giving him what he wants by deciding on execution.

“He wants you to think Osama bin Laden will be mad at us,” Raskin said.

“Do you think Osama bin Laden gives a damn about what happens here? ... That is a joke.”