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Moussaoui jury selection proceeds quietly

An artist's drawing shows Judge Leonie Brinkema questioning a prospective juror, left, whose identity cannot be shown, as confessed al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, center with beard, and his lawyer Gerald Zerkin, right, look on in Bryan US District Courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday. PHOTO: AFP

Zacarias Moussaoui, the al-Qaeda conspirator known for insulting outbursts in court, sat quietly as a judge qualified 29 people to serve on the jury that will decide if he lives or dies.

One selected on Thursday was a woman who said she assumes Moussaoui is evil and a man whose co-worker was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

After selecting prospective jurors on Wednesday and Thursday, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has qualified 29 of the 46 people she has interviewed. Nine were approved over defense objections, four over prosecutors' objections.

Despite repeated tirades at other pretrial hearings, Moussaoui has followed Brinkema's orders to keep quiet during jury selection. He has studied the jurors closely and even requested that a courtroom podium be moved so he could get an unobstructed view.

Only rarely has Moussaoui shown visible reaction to jurors' comments. He appeared to nod in agreement on Thursday morning when a woman was asked how she would evaluate witness testimony, and she replied, "The truth is the truth no matter who says it."

Moussaoui has been forced to let his court-appointed lawyers, whom he despises, make his arguments for him during jury selection.

Perhaps the most heated debate occurred on Thursday afternoon when defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin unsuccessfully sought to keep off the jury a public works executive whose former co-worker was killed in the 2001 attacks.

The man said he worked with her on two projects and may have had drinks with her but did not attend her funeral.

"We can't have associates of victims on the jury .... He would qualify as a victim impact witness," Zerkin said.

But Brinkema countered that the man sounded fair and said not every terrorist deserves execution.

The 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent pleaded guilty last April to conspiring with al-Qaeda to fly planes into US buildings. He denies any involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks and says he was training to fly a plane into the White House as part of an aborted second wave of attacks.

Zerkin offered no objection to the woman who assumed Moussaoui is evil; she was deemed qualified to serve.

The judge said on Thursday that she might finish picking 85 potential jurors by the end of next week, which would put the trial ahead of schedule. The 85 will return on March 6 for lawyers to exercise peremptory -- unexplained -- disqualifications to whittle the total to 12 jurors and six alternates and to deliver opening statements in the sentencing trial.

The government's unsuccessful objections included a female county government worker who described herself as a liberal and wrote on a jury questionnaire, "I don't think we have the right to take anyone's life."

She said she would set her personal feelings aside and follow the law.
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