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.
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