The jury in the Zacarias Moussaoui case has sentenced him to life in prison rather than giving him the death penalty. This is good; it saves me the trouble of writing a long diatribe about how STUPID it is to execute people who might have unique personal information about a historically significant event. Moussaoui’s not talking now, but in ten years, or twenty years, he may change his mind.
We’ll never know what information Timothy McVeigh took to the grave.
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Unfortunately, we’ll have to deal with the whining about how he should have fried and now we’re all going to be supporting this guy in prison with our tax dollars, and so on.
A friend who has spent time in jail said he won’t live long there. Unless they put him in solitary, some inmate(s) will kill him.
You can also say that we denied him martyrdom and thus avoided making him more sympathetic to other potential terrorists. This might even be a reason most wingnuts would be satisfied with if they didn’t have such a love of killin’ themselves.
deerdancer,
He’ll probably end up in a supermax facility which is very much like solitary from what this lawabiding citizen understands. Either way, he’s certainly been in jail up to this point and presumably they’ll continue with whatever’s been working.
This is good; it saves me the trouble of writing a long diatribe about how STUPID it is to execute people who might have unique personal information about a historically significant event.
Its also a good idea not to make a martyr out of him.
I hope that he finds a boyfriend as soon as he goes to jail.
Bottoms up and I don’t mean as in cheers!
It has been clear for some time even to a casual observer that this man is deranged. I read somewhere that he is a diagnosed schizophrenic. Jail is the best outcome. The 100 virgins will have to wait. The sentence is however yet another confirmation of the ineptness of the administration.
It will be interesting if we hear from the jurors. I agree they did the right thing. I have this instinctive sense that they gave Moussaoui life because they believed he wanted the death penalty.
And he’s wrong… this is the first day in a while that America won one.
I always thought executing McVeigh was stupid. And think how his ego would have suffered when his domestic terror event was so vastly overshadowed by 9/11.
He might even have talked out of frustration–and we might know how his horror came about.
His death accomplished absolutely nothing.
I’m really glad a precedent of executing those who may know something but did not actually do anything , has not been set.
I agree with you, emel. That precedent would be a slippery slope, implicating the guilt of Rice, Bush and others who sat on warnings throughout the presidential vacation month of August ‘01.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Moussaoui is going to an American jail that houses American prisoners, right?
There are two things mass murderers have no patience with in prison…child molesters and terrorists. Moussaoui will be dead within a few years. The prisoners will kill him.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Moussaoui is going to an American jail that houses American prisoners, right?
He’s most likely going to go to the same supermax prison that is holding Richard Reid, Ted Kaczynski, and Terry Nichols, in which case nobody will be able to get to him. He won’t be in a general prison population.
A lot of good reasons here why he should not be put to death but the most underlying one is that it is wrong. Even Saddam shouldnot be put to death, just because we would only be killing one man does not make it any more right than mass murder. I believe if you want to be cruel you can imprison someone with no enjoyment of life, nothing to see but your cell, artificial light and tasteless food. Gaurds with helmuts so not even human contact allowed. God,karma whatever takes care of it in the end and that covers our actions as well.
I came across your blog googling for liberal blogs. Your posts are very thoughtful and informative and I’ll definitely be checking back often.
On NPR this morning, they quoted a relative of someone who died on 9/11 who said something along the lines of “That’s a fit punishment. For someone who hates Americans as much as he does, he’ll spend the rest of his life surrounded by them.”
I suppose if the inmates don’t get to him first.
The historians are relieved and I’m relieved, too. I’m also relieved that a majority of the American public seem to be on the same page with this outcome.
I’ve heard some speculation on the media about why two of the 9/11 planners have not been brought to trial as yet:
Unfortunately, all of the New York tabloids (and various celebrities, like Giuliani) are calling for his head on a platter. (And you know we live in bizarro world when the Post’s editorial is more level-headed than the Daily News’.) I agree, this is the best outcome, and not only because I oppose the death penalty. The NY Times coverage is pretty good, if anyone is curious about why the jury decided as they did, including this graphic explaining the mitigating factors that kept the jury from unanimously deciding on the death penalty. The most compelling argument to the jury seemed to be that Moussauoi had a horrific childhood. (It also shows that 3 jurors were not convinced Moussauoi was directly involved with 9/11, or that his knowledge of the plot was limited, which is very interesting.)
OFF SUBJECT BUT NOT TARGET-
CNN just showed Rummy in Atlanta speaking at the Center for Int’l Studies. There was a female protestor who disrupted him and she was taken out.
The female CNN reporter said that Rumsfield kept his calm.
HELLO! Why not, they know people hate him and they are prepared. That’s why Rummy was calm. I would be too if I was surrounded by guards to protect me.
ALSO, I would feel calm knowing the DICK the Dick brought me to the table in the beginning. Rummy brought Dick and Dick brought Rummy. PLUS – They are next-door neighbors!
“What we are now left to ponder is the question of whether the death penalty is now off the table for other jihadis who are captured in the US and tried in civil courts?”
Sorry, A Blog For All. This, from your blog, seems a lame bit of reasoning to me. Moussaoui is not on a par with some of the other 9/11 perpetrators (whom we have in our custody and who have not yet been brought to trial…why, we wonder?) – in other words, the actual planners. (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be a principal architect of the September 11 plot and
Ramzi Binalshibh, roommate of Atta, imprisoned under similar conditions as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.)
Instead, we’re talking about some wanna be from whom Al Qaeda seems to be distancing themselves. Have you heard any ranting coming from them on this trial? Why have they been so quiet? Shouldn’t he be a hero or something?
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EB0FD024-CF57-4E65-9999-63E66A516BC2.htm
And he’s crazy like a fox? Glad you have a good understanding of the mind of this guy. I’ve found that getting inside the mind of a nut can make you crazy!
As usual, the righties miss the point. Moussaoui was a bit player, a sideshow, a flake. His trial was a band-aid over the failure of the Bush Administration to bring anyone really responsible for 9/11 to justice. The real perps are either still free or can’t be tried in a U.S. court because they were tortured.
May 3, 2006 
