Monday, March 06, 2006

This could really be the trial of the century

Even more so than Saddam's trial, Moussaoui's trial has a direct impact on America and thousands of families that lost someone on 9/11 will get to watch it on closed circuit.

A trial to determine whether the only man charged in the US over the September 11 attacks will be sentenced to death began in a Virginian court on Tuesday after four years of wrangling and delay.

Final jury selection began in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen who has acknowledged his loyalty to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and its leader, Osama bin Laden, but denies he had anything to do with September 11, 2001.

Moussaoui, frequently ejected from the courtroom earlier in the process because of his outbursts, sat quietly as US District Judge Leonie Brinkema took a roll call of the prospective jurors, calling each by an assigned number instead of by name in the heavily guarded courthouse.


I imagine all of America will be watching this with keen interest. He's going to get prison time regardless of the outcome because he did plead guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda to commit terrorist acts on the US. If convicted of involvement in 9/11 he is likely to get the death penalty. If only the penalty could somehow be put on equal footing with the deaths many experienced on 9/11.