One Step Closer: Moussaoui Jury Reaches Verdict

Thursday, May 18, 2006

By Terry Moran, ABC News' Nightline

April 3, 2006

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS) (Off-camera) And on the legal front, Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged with the attacks on 9/11, is now one step closer to the death chamber. His long-running trial and sentencing hearings have at times resembled a circus and raised serious questions about whether he's a cold-blooded terrorist or a lunatic. But tonight, the government has overcome some enormous hurdles in its mission to put Zacarias Moussaoui to death.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) Just after 4:00 this afternoon, a spokesman walked out of the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, and announced the jury's verdict.

EDWARD ADAMS (PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER)

In the case of United States versus Zacarias Moussaoui, the jury has reached a verdict.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) With that, jurors found that Zacarias Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent, was eligible under the law for the death penalty. Setting the stage for a wrenching courtroom confrontation between him and family members of the victims of 9/11.

JOSHUA BERMAN (FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR)

You probably will hear from 40 or so victim family members.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) And they'll be in that room with Moussaoui sitting across the courtroom?

JOSHUA BERMAN (FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR)

That's right. They'll take the stand. They'll be six feet away from him. Most likely looking him in the eye as they tell their story.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) Outside the courthouse in Virginia, some family members rejoiced.

ROSEMARY DILLARD (WIDOW OF 9/11 VICTIM)

Yes. I'm glad that this part is over. I think the jury had a hard thing to do. I think the jury did a darn good job.

ABRAHAM SCOTT (HUSBAND OF 9/11 VICTIM)

I describe him like a dog with rabies. One that cannot be cured. And the only cure is to put - put him or her to their death.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) ABC News producer, Jason Ryan, was inside the courtroom for the verdict, and says Moussaoui did his best to display his contempt for the proceeds.

JASON RYAN (ABC NEWS PRODUCER)

He was in the back room screaming. And then he finally came out. And he refused to stand up when they read the verdict. They said, will the defendant please stand? And he just sat in his chair. After the judge and the jury had left, he yelled, "you'll never get my blood, God curse you all. God curse you all."

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) Moussaoui's the only person in the US to be charged in connection with 9/11. But just who he really is and what, if any, role he really had in the plot are questions that remain shrouded in mystery. A mystery largely of his own making. Prosecutors portrayed him as a ruthless, cold-blooded terrorist, chosen by Osama bin Laden himself to infiltrate the US and kill Americans on a mass scale. His own lawyers, who he refuses to speak to, said he was nothing more than a "al Qaeda hanger-on." A wannabe. A small fry who the government was scapegoating to distract from the failure to bring higher-ups to justice. 9/11 Commission member Tim Romer says Moussaoui was a genuine terrorist.

TIM ROMER (9/11 COMMISSION)

From the best evidence that the 9/11 Commission put together, we said that he was probably being primed as a possible pilot. A pilot that might take over from somebody that looked, from al Qaeda's perspective, like he was going to pull out and they needed to put somebody in.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) But jurors also learned that top al Qaeda leaders had real doubts about Moussaoui. He was, it turns out, a headache for his bosses. One of those senior al Qaeda leaders was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, who was captured in 2003. In an account of his CIA interrogations read to the jury, Mohammed complained that Moussaoui was not qualified to be an operative. Citing Moussaoui's failure to follow instructions and poor operational security practices. But all the evidence, on both sides, pealed in comparison to one astonishing moment.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) What was the key moment in the case, in your judgment, leading to the verdict today?

JOSHUA BERMAN (FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR)

His testimony. The minute he took the stand, opened his mouth and described his role in the events of 9/11 and training for 9/11. From the government's perspective and probably from the jury's perspective, it was over.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) Now that jurors have decided that Moussaoui's crime warrants the death penalty, they will have to answer that stark question. Should he be executed? Defense lawyers are expected to portray him as mentally unfit for the death penalty.

JOSHUA BERMAN (FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR)

We've got the victims on one hand. And on the other, you're going to hear about the abusive upbringing that Moussaoui had. You're gonna re-hear about the problems he had growing up in France. You're gonna hear about his vulnerability to fundamental Islamic revolutionary ideas. And you're going to hear mostly likely expert talk about his schizophrenia. And it's these psychological issues that the defense lawyers will dwell on. And that will be their big pitch going forward.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) 9/11 commissioner Tim Romer says for all the troubles this trial has seen, the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has achieved real results.

TIM ROEMER (9/11 COMMISSION)

Hopefully, it means some kind of moving on for the 9/11 families, who have been so deeply impacted by this. Two, I hope it means that the United States will, again, wake up and begin to implement the reforms that make our country safer. We're still vulnerable. We still don't have 21st-century communication in the FBI. And thirdly, I think it says in a positive way, that the justice system can be part of the many tools to fight terrorism.