Well, despite the fact we really havn't been following this, I figured it might be worth to note that the jury in the trial of Moussaoui has come to a verdict which will be announced later today. Feel free to post it here, I'll probably be in class during that time.

Anyways, the BBC:

I certainly hope he gets life in prison with no chance of parole.

I wonder how long he'll be able to survive in a US prison? They can't keep him in solitary forever.

That would be sufficient, but I really don't want my tax dollars going to sustain the guy when we have a large defecit and enough problems for our law-abiding citizens.

Oh my good Lord, the Jury was actually smart enough not to give him the death sentence. I'm always happy when my cynicism turns out wrong.

Aye me too, I was almost certain he was going to get death.

And its LP :wub:

How is that? :huh:
You failed to flying a plane into anything, you were caught, you’re going to a United States prison, and you didn’t die a martyr’s death.

Yeah, I'm sure in his mind he is a marytr

I'm happy with that. Moussaoui will get what he deserves.

Even for the most dangerous criminals, I don't care much for death sentences. It's just a matter of principle, because a life sentence in an American prison might be worse than a death sentence.

If he prefers to die, he can just kill himself. If he does, I won't mourn for very long.

I imagine that if he isn't kept away from the general population, he might have a serious problem with people not really liking him. You think a child molester has to have special concerns in prison, what about this guy?

I am glad he was not sentenced to death, as I am against the death penalty.

Life in prison was the right sentence.

Yes, but there's another reason why I'm glad he wasn't sentenced to death. If he had been executed, he would have become a hero and a martyr, and all terrorists and American-haters all over the world would have admired him.

But in an US prison, he'll just be another loser. No one will congratulate him, and no one would be willing to do like him.

In short: if he's sentenced to death, a lot of people will remember him as a hero. If he's sentenced to prison for the rest of his life, the world will remember him as a criminal. That's just what he deserves.

I agree Che Guevara but I do think that when someone has the involvement of killing 3,000 people the death penalty should've been given. I'm against the death penalty would make this one exception.

My first two immediate thoughts on this:

He should have been given the death penalty, and then spent three days:
in the electric chair!

His defense Atty's tried and evidently successfully convinced the jury that this lose is mad as a hatter!

My second thought is:

In the US, one of the most active and successful areas for gaining new members into the various (and more radical) venues of Islam is in prison.

But, like so many others of late, this type generally gets "the Dahmer" treatment before very long.

I abhor the death penalty. I abhor him more.

Moussaoui didn't kill anybody.

Neither did Hitler and Stalin.

Exactly. We didn't give him any reason to believe he had won in any way at all, but still he feels somehow like he won. He's insane. He's just so absolutely nuts he thinks he has done well no matter what the situation is back in reality. What he doesn't realize is that there are fates worse than death.

Yes they did. I'm sure you think it's clever to say "they didn't kill anybody" because they weren't the men pulling the triggers, but they still hold ultimate responsibility for ordering those deaths. Interestingly enough, both men may (though it's not a certainty) have killed people directly, especially when both were serving in armies in combat zones (Hitler as a WWI courrier, and Stalin during the Russian Civil War).


But Moussaoui is not responsible for the deaths in the 9/11 attacks.

Well, you were the one who said that Moussaoui didn't kill anybody, right? I'm sure you meant that he didn't, as you say, "pull the trigger", but he's as guilty as the ones who did. He might not be the one who ordered the attacks, but the mere fact that he helped planning them makes him a criminal. Even those who knew that the attacks were going to take place but didn't warn anyone because they supported them could be considered as criminals.

I don't think that LP is saying he is not a criminal, but that he didn't kill anyone. There is a difference, doubly so when it comes to enforcing punishments through the legal system.

Moussaoui was not a part of the 9/11 plot, neither in its execution nor its planning. His knowledge of it was very limited, and because he'd been in contact with some of the people behind that attack in the preparation for his own.

But not on the same level as those who committed the crime or were actually involved in it. We can't hold people responsible for murder simply because they weren't fully cooperative with investigative authorities. That would be an incredibly dangerous precedent to be set in our legal system, and shifts too much responsibility away from the investigators themselves.

Yes, you're right. But actually, I didn't know much about Moussaoui and I thought he was one of the evil minds behind the 9/11 attacks. My mistake. ;)

Unfortunately, too many people will never realize that they're mistaken. People are too eager to seek revenge, especially in cases like 9/11 where those directly responsible are unavailable to punish.

Heh, thats how most of our actions seem to be carried out, in that mindset. Good point on the precendent though.