The judge in the death-penalty trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui has said the case is one of the most complex criminal cases in US history, but jurors now face a very simple question: Does Moussaoui deserve to die?
Testimony in the six-week trial concluded on Thursday after prosecutors conceded they have no evidence to support Moussaoui's claim that he and so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid were going to team up to fly a plane into the White House on 9/11 and that FBI analysts find such a possibility highly unlikely.
Jurors also heard a government psychiatrist rebut defense claims that their client is a paranoid schizophrenic who suffers delusions.
Closing arguments are set for Monday, after which jurors must decide between two options: death or life in prison.
The disclosure about Reid goes directly to the dispute over the credibility of Moussaoui's testimony. He stunned the courtroom on March 27 by recanting years of denying any involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and telling jurors that he and Reid were to have hijacked a fifth jetliner that day.
Moussaoui's court-appointed defense team, with whom he does not cooperate, argues that Moussaoui was lying either to achieve martyrdom through execution or to enhance his role in history as an al-Qaeda terrorist.
Defense lawyers tried to bring Reid to court from federal prison, where he is serving life for attempting to detonate a shoe bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001. That bid was thwarted. But defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed on a written stipulation about Reid that was read to the jury.
"No information is available to indicate that Richard Reid had pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 operation or was instructed by al-Qaeda leaders to conduct an operation in coordination with Moussaoui," it said.
For one thing, Reid named Moussaoui as the beneficiary in his will. Two FBI analysts concluded that was an unlikely choice if they were going to be on a joint suicide mission.
Reid and Moussaoui had met while attending the same militant-leaning mosque in London.
The government-appointed psychiatrist, Raymond Patterson, testified that Moussaoui, who frequently hurls insults and derisive jokes at his lawyers and others, is not mentally ill. Instead, he is what would be colloquially described as "a character."
He said Moussaoui's often incoherent written court motions and his dream-driven belief that US President George W. Bush will release him were not evidence of disorganized thinking or delusions.
His belief that Bush will set him free is a religious conviction, Patterson said, and no more delusional than other religious beliefs, he said.
On cross-examination, Patterson refused to concede that Moussaoui's belief he will be freed is irrational, saying it is plausible that Moussaoui could be freed as part of a hostage exchange.
"I know we traded arms for hostages," Patterson said, referring to the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal.
Patterson also acknowledged on cross-examination that he had done no research about how Muslims relate dreams to prophecy, and said he was satisfied that Moussaoui quoted to him a Koranic verse about the importance of dreams.
Moussaoui is the only person charged in the US in the Sept. 11 attacks. The jury earlier found him eligible for execution by determining that his actions caused at least one death that day. Although Moussaoui was in jail on Sept. 11, the jury ruled that lies he told federal agents when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations allowed the plot to go forward.
The trial has included testimony from nearly 60 Sept. 11 victims and their families who told heartbreaking stories about the attacks and their aftermath. Among them were 13 who chose to testify on Moussaoui's behalf and say they have no desire for vengeance.
Moussaoui himself took the stand twice to gloat about the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and mock the testimony of the 9/11 families, prompting some to wonder whether his ultimate goal was to sabotage his defense and be executed as a means to martyrdom.
The jury has also heard written testimony from some of the most notorious members of al-Qaeda, including Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who said Moussaoui was to have been part of a second wave of attacks that ultimately was aborted.
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