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Closing arguments to be heard in 9/11 trial Phil Hirschkorn / CNN | April 24 2006 ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- A jury will hear closing arguments and then receive instructions Monday to deliberate the fate of al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces a potential death sentence for his connections to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Court resumes at 9:30 a.m. ET. Deliberations are expected to begin Monday afternoon. Moussaoui, 37, a French citizen of Arab descent, is the first person the U.S. government has put on trial for the attacks that resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths when four hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in northern Virginia, and a field in western Pennsylvania. Moussaoui, whose main contribution to the conspiracy was covering it up following his arrest a month before, has told the jury he feels no remorse for the deaths, handing the prosecutors an affirmation of a key item on the checklist of questions the jury will consider. The jury must also consider the impact of the attacks on victims' families and survivors, New York's government and economy, and the functioning of the nation's military headquarters. Prosecutors called 30 Sept. 11 families to describe their losses and a handful of survivors of the trade center and Pentagon attacks to describe the horrific scenes. The same jury of nine men and three women that decided last month Moussaoui's lies to interrogators in August 2001 directly resulted in some deaths, will now decide whether the court shall impose execution by lethal injection or life in the nation's super-maximum security prison with no chance of release. Five alternates have also sat through seven weeks of testimony and evidence. The most heartwrenching was perhaps the parade of families who described their losses coupled with videotapes of planes crashing into the twin towers and people jumping from them. Moussaoui pleaded guilty to all charges against him last year, while maintaining he had no role in the Sept. 11 plot. However, when he testified twice during the past seven weeks, he claimed his enrollment in U.S. flight schools was designed to enable him to pilot a fifth plane on Sept. 11 into the White House. FBI witnesses conceded no evidence of a fifth targeted plane exists, and prosecutors endorsed a defense statement debunking Moussaoui's claim that "shoebomber" Richard Reid was tapped for his hijacking crew. The stipulation informed the jury that while Moussaoui and Reid knew each other from a London mosque and paramilitary camp in Afghanistan, al Qaeda leadership never assigned them to work together on any terrorist operation. Moussaoui's credibility may also have been undermined by defense mental health experts, who diagnose Moussaoui as a paranoid schizophrenic who suffers from delusions, including the recurring dream that President Bush will free him. Yet the government psychiatrist who has spent the most time interviewing Moussaoui rejects the schizophrenia diagnosis and told the jury some of Moussaoui's unconventional beliefs are rooted in his fundamentalist Muslim faith. Former federal prosecutor Peter White predicted prosecutors are "going to remind the jury of the impact that September 11th had on thousands and thousands of innocent Americans." White said prosecutors will depict Moussaoui as someone "who takes glee in killing Americans and pledged his continuing desire to kill Americans" and may conclude with a statement along the lines of: "If Zacarias Moussaoui doesn't deserve the death penalty, then who does?" More than a dozen Sept. 11 families who don't believe Moussaoui should receive the death penalty testified for the defense last week. They were forbidden from offering an opinion on capital punishment in court. "Clearly the defender's office invited each of us to testify in hope that the jury would be encouraged to find this man worthy of spending the rest of his life in prison and not executed, and that is my hope as well," said Marilynn Rosenthal, outside the courthouse. Her son, Josh, died inside the twin towers. "Mr. Moussaoui is the wrong man to be on trial. There are other people in custody who were central planners," said Alice Hogland, outside court. She testified about her son, Mark Bingham, who was among the heroes who fought back on United Flight 93, thwarting hijackers' plans to hit the Capitol when the plane went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Indeed, one of the reasons not to execute Moussaoui, defense attorneys are expected to argue, is that Sept. 11 plot coordinator Khalid Shaiykh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, who have been referenced repeatedly in the trial, are among the captured al Qaeda higher-ups not yet facing justice. "They are the ones who should be on trial," Hoagland said. "Moussaoui is a marginal and undependable character." ---------------------------------------------------
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