As Giuliani Testifies As To Horror Of 9/11, Moussaoui Smiles

That smile is going to get you dead, Chief. Enjoy it.

Mr. Giuliani, testifying in the trial that will determine whether Mr. Moussaoui is put to death or spends the rest of his days in prison, told of seeing a man plunge 100 stories to his death from the center's North Tower. But horrible as the sight was, it was only the beginning.

Moments later, the former mayor said, he saw several more people jump, including two who held hands all the way down. "That image comes back to me every day," Mr. Giuliani told a jury in United States District Court here.

The former mayor, whose cool presence on Sept. 11, 2001, was seen by many as the defining moment of his time in office, did not look at Mr. Moussaoui. Instead, Mr. Giuliani used a pointer and a three-and-a-half-foot scale model of the Twin Towers to depict what he saw that blue-sky morning.

...

As the former mayor testified, Mr. Moussaoui stared at him. Then, when prosecutors played videotapes of the Twin Towers' destruction, Mr. Moussaoui smiled.

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema told the jurors the decision on whether Mr. Moussaoui should be executed is theirs alone. The jurors concluded on Monday that death could at least be considered for Mr. Moussaoui because he was responsible for some of the Sept. 11 deaths.

Is the decision actually theirs alone? Doesn't the judge-- who strikes me as very resistant to applying the death penalty, even in the case of the mass murder of 2800 people -- have the power to enter a judgement notwithstanding the verdict? I thought it was constitutionally required that judges have the power to overturn such verdicts. Practicing lawyers, any help?

I have a bad feeling Brinkima will overturn the jury's decision, if she can.

...

"The only punishment that fits this crime is the death penalty," Mr. Spencer [the prosecutor] said.

But Gerald Zerkin, a court-appointed lawyer for Mr. Moussaoui, asked the jurors to at least "open yourselves to the possibility of a sentence other than death."

I have an alternative sentence. Put him in burning room (with walls fireproofed) on the top floor of the Empire State Building. Let him decide whether or not to jump or be burned alive. If he jumps and lives, then he gets to spend the rest of his life in prison.

posted by Ace at 01:25 PM

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