Moussaoui: Closing Arguments and the Martyr Issue
The Judge in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial has barred the defense from playing the martyr card in its closing argument:
The latest strange turn in Moussaoui's behavior could bolster the defense's claims that he would say anything to achieve martyrdom. Defense attorney Edward MacMahon told jurors in opening remarks that Moussaoui can only achieve that now if they vote to execute him. "Don't make him a hero," MacMahon pleaded.
Prosecutors got Brinkema to bar a repeat of that plea as an emotional rather than legal argument. But she agreed to allow MacMahon to argue Wednesday that evidence of a desire for martyrdom calls into question the credibility of Moussaoui's confession to being a part of Sept. 11.
I think she's wrong and that it's entirely proper for the defense to tell the jury in closing arguments that Moussaoui wants to be a martyr. Similar arguments were made in the 2001 Embassy Bombers' trial and were among the reasons the jury returned a life sentence. The lead prosecutor in the case, by the way, was Patrick Fitzgerald.
In the 18-page jury verdict form ten jurors cited the likelihood that execution would make Al-'Owhali a martyr for al Qaeda's cause as a factor in considering life in prison. Ten jurors also found that Al-'Owhali committed the crime based on his sincere belief that his conduct was mandated by his religion and believed bin Laden's assertions that embassies were legitimate military targets. Eight noted that other members of the al Qaeda conspiracy arrested or charged in the bombings will not be punished by death.
From the closing argument:
Now, all of you know the power of
4 martyrdom. It's not just an Islamic thing.
5 All of us know the name of Joan of Arc because
6 she was burned at the stake. But it's not just
7 big people who are immortalized by martyrdom.
8 Small people, too. You all know the name
9 Nathan Hale: I regret that I have but one life
10 to give for my country. He was just a soldier
11 in the revolutionary war, just a Vermont
12 soldier. No one would know who he was, had he
13 be held in a prisoner of war camp, but,
14 instead, once he was executed, he became a
15 rallying cry, a martyr, and we remember him to
16 this day.
17 Send him to jail and he'll quickly be
18 forgotten by all except those who love him.
19 Kill him, and you've guaranteed him
20 immortality.
21 In the end if you kill him, you'll
22 allow him to be used twice.
and later,
In the end, if you give him life,
19 Khalfan will disappear. No one except those he
20 loves will remember him. Someone has to say
21 enough. Someone has to say I will not hurt
22 another family. Someone has to say I will not
23 become those I detest by doing what they do and
24 killing in the name of justice.
25 Let that be you.
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