This should spice things up. Let's combine some heated topics around these parts
for a recipe for an interesting conversation...
Hi everyone,
Below is an article about Zacarias Moussaoui, the supposed "20th hijacker" of 9/11. He was in jail at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and if you look closely in this article, you can see that prosecutors are going after him not for having a direct role in the attacks, but for not telling them what he knew of them--a pretty flimsy case on which to seek the death penalty. Below the article, I've pasted an article I wrote for the New Abolitionist, the CEDP's newsletter, in May 2002 about his case. It seems clear that seeking the death penalty in Moussaoui's case is a way for the feds to prop up George W. Bush's "war on terror" by claiming that it really is achieving results.
Julien
Jury selection begins in Moussaoui trial
06 February 2006 15:45
Jury selection has begun at the start of the trial to decide whether confessed al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui should be executed for his role in the 11 September attacks.
Moussaoui is the only man convicted in connection with the attacks in the US in 2001.
The 37-year-old has admitted to conspiring with al-Qaeda to carry out the attacks in which almost 3,000 people were killed.
It is thought the US jury selection process will take around one month to complete.
Jurors will be asked to rule on whether Moussaoui is eligible to be put to death for his crimes and then must decide if he should get the penalty.
Moussaoui, born in France to Moroccan parents, was arrested by the FBI in August 2001.
At that time he was attending a flight school in Minnesota.
Federal prosecutors allege that by not co-operating then Moussaoui prolonged the conspiracy of the 9/11 attackers.
After a long and complex legal process, Moussaoui pleaded guilty in a preliminary hearing in April last year to conspiring with the 11 September attackers but denied he was directly involved with planning those attacks.
His lawyers contend that he suffers from a mental illness and his conversion to radical Islam in London in the 1990s was linked to this state of mind.
Moussaoui On Trial For His Life
Using Terrorism To Justify The Death Penalty
by Julien Ball
The federal government is seeking the death penalty against Zacharias Moussaoui, who is accused of conspiring with the September 11 attackers. In the face of a horrible tragedy, the federal government is using Moussaoui’s case to justify the death penalty.
The evidence against Moussaoui is largely circumstantial. According to prosecutors, Moussaoui is guilty of attending flight training school, inquiring about crop-dusting procedures, and allegedly receiving funding from an international fugitive. The glaring weakness in the case against Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is that he was in a Minnesota jail on September 11 on unrelated charges.
Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is out for blood. During Bush’s first year in office, he resumed the federal death machine when he executed Timothy McVeigh and Juan Raul Garza last June, despite mounting protest against their executions. McVeigh’s execution was the first federal execution since 1963.
The U.S. continues to face increasing international opposition to the death penalty. The French government had urged Attorney General John Ashcroft to forgo the death penalty in Moussaoui’s case. "We do not accept the death penalty," said French Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu. France, like every other member of the European Union, bans the death penalty. Europeans have remained firm in this stance, refusing to extradite alleged al-Qaeda suspects to the U.S. without a commitment that they would not be charged with capital punishment.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, public opinion regarding the death penalty has barely shifted. A Gallup survey three weeks after the attacks showed that 68 percent of those surveyed favored the death penalty, up just three percentage points from a survey last May.
Numerous states and public officials continue to question the fairness of the death penalty. In March, Indiana banned the execution of juveniles. In a comprehensive review of the California death penalty, the San Jose Mercury News found that the state’s system has many of the same problems that have created concern about the death penalty across the nation. "The whole thing is a mess," said former California Supreme Court Justice Edward Panelli, a conservative who voted to affirm most death sentences he reviewed. "It wouldn’t hurt me at all if they just changed the law."
Later this spring, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on a case that could ban the execution of the mentally retarded.
And recently, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said that he would declare the federal death penalty unconstitutional unless the government could explain why so many condemned inmates turn out to be innocent.
In the coming months, activists will have the opportunity to expose the death penalty as a broken system. What we do now is more important than ever.
for a recipe for an interesting conversation...
Hi everyone,
Below is an article about Zacarias Moussaoui, the supposed "20th hijacker" of 9/11. He was in jail at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and if you look closely in this article, you can see that prosecutors are going after him not for having a direct role in the attacks, but for not telling them what he knew of them--a pretty flimsy case on which to seek the death penalty. Below the article, I've pasted an article I wrote for the New Abolitionist, the CEDP's newsletter, in May 2002 about his case. It seems clear that seeking the death penalty in Moussaoui's case is a way for the feds to prop up George W. Bush's "war on terror" by claiming that it really is achieving results.
Julien
Jury selection begins in Moussaoui trial
06 February 2006 15:45
Jury selection has begun at the start of the trial to decide whether confessed al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui should be executed for his role in the 11 September attacks.
Moussaoui is the only man convicted in connection with the attacks in the US in 2001.
The 37-year-old has admitted to conspiring with al-Qaeda to carry out the attacks in which almost 3,000 people were killed.
It is thought the US jury selection process will take around one month to complete.
Jurors will be asked to rule on whether Moussaoui is eligible to be put to death for his crimes and then must decide if he should get the penalty.
Moussaoui, born in France to Moroccan parents, was arrested by the FBI in August 2001.
At that time he was attending a flight school in Minnesota.
Federal prosecutors allege that by not co-operating then Moussaoui prolonged the conspiracy of the 9/11 attackers.
After a long and complex legal process, Moussaoui pleaded guilty in a preliminary hearing in April last year to conspiring with the 11 September attackers but denied he was directly involved with planning those attacks.
His lawyers contend that he suffers from a mental illness and his conversion to radical Islam in London in the 1990s was linked to this state of mind.
Moussaoui On Trial For His Life
Using Terrorism To Justify The Death Penalty
by Julien Ball
The federal government is seeking the death penalty against Zacharias Moussaoui, who is accused of conspiring with the September 11 attackers. In the face of a horrible tragedy, the federal government is using Moussaoui’s case to justify the death penalty.
The evidence against Moussaoui is largely circumstantial. According to prosecutors, Moussaoui is guilty of attending flight training school, inquiring about crop-dusting procedures, and allegedly receiving funding from an international fugitive. The glaring weakness in the case against Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is that he was in a Minnesota jail on September 11 on unrelated charges.
Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is out for blood. During Bush’s first year in office, he resumed the federal death machine when he executed Timothy McVeigh and Juan Raul Garza last June, despite mounting protest against their executions. McVeigh’s execution was the first federal execution since 1963.
The U.S. continues to face increasing international opposition to the death penalty. The French government had urged Attorney General John Ashcroft to forgo the death penalty in Moussaoui’s case. "We do not accept the death penalty," said French Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu. France, like every other member of the European Union, bans the death penalty. Europeans have remained firm in this stance, refusing to extradite alleged al-Qaeda suspects to the U.S. without a commitment that they would not be charged with capital punishment.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, public opinion regarding the death penalty has barely shifted. A Gallup survey three weeks after the attacks showed that 68 percent of those surveyed favored the death penalty, up just three percentage points from a survey last May.
Numerous states and public officials continue to question the fairness of the death penalty. In March, Indiana banned the execution of juveniles. In a comprehensive review of the California death penalty, the San Jose Mercury News found that the state’s system has many of the same problems that have created concern about the death penalty across the nation. "The whole thing is a mess," said former California Supreme Court Justice Edward Panelli, a conservative who voted to affirm most death sentences he reviewed. "It wouldn’t hurt me at all if they just changed the law."
Later this spring, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on a case that could ban the execution of the mentally retarded.
And recently, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said that he would declare the federal death penalty unconstitutional unless the government could explain why so many condemned inmates turn out to be innocent.
In the coming months, activists will have the opportunity to expose the death penalty as a broken system. What we do now is more important than ever.
