A US federal judge is trying to turn the courtroom misbehavior of confessed al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui into a useful tool for picking the jury that will decide whether he is put to death or imprisoned for life.
Five hundred potential jurors got a taste on Monday of what a sentencing trial involving Moussaoui might involve: He was kicked out of court four times in a single day as the court began a month of jury selection.
Last April, he pleaded guilty to conspiring with al-Qaeda to fly planes into US buildings, but he claimed to know nothing of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and was training for a later attack on the White House.
The potential jurors came to court in four separate groups. The short, bearded Frenchman in the prison jump suit interrupted the first session just as it began -- to announce "I'm al-Qaeda" and disavow the lawyers appointed by the court to represent him.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema warned Moussaoui it wasn't his time to speak and, when he kept going, had marshals escort him from the room.
He left without resistance, but declared, "This trial is a circus."
Court observers wondered whether Brinkema was going to allow Moussaoui, who disrupted many pretrial proceedings, back in the courtroom. She decided to bring him back for all three sessions, each of which played out in nearly identical fashion. In later sessions, he also vowed to "take the stand to tell the whole truth about my involvement."
Brinkema told the first panel of jurors: "If any of you feel that that outburst or the way he conducted himself might affect the way in which you would go about judging this case, you need to clearly put that statement on the jury questionnaire." She repeated that admonition to the other three panels.
"She turned that to some constructive use," said Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond. "Once it happened, it probably made sense to make sure every group saw the same behavior -- and he cooperated."
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
RSS