Admission presents doubts for officials
Jurors must decide life in prison or execution.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Prosecutors acknowledged Thursday that the government has no evidence to support -- and actually doubts -- part of ZacariasMoussaoui's dramatic courtroom confession that he was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks: His claim that shoe bomber Richard Reid was to be on his team.
Thanks to legal maneuvering outside court, the potentially damaging concession reached the jury in a decidedly undramatic way: It was part of a stipulation agreed to by the government and read to the jury in the monotone voice of defense lawyer Alan Yamamoto.
The disclosure came shortly before the defense rested its case for sparing the life of the 37-year-old Frenchman. Testimony in the trial concluded after prosecutors presented their only rebuttal witness, psychiatrist Raymond Patterson, who examined Moussaoui. Patterson disagreed with defense experts who testified the terrorist conspirator is a paranoid schizophrenic.
On Monday, jurors who must choose execution or life in prison for Moussaoui will hear closing arguments and begin deliberations.
Ending testimony
The windup of testimony in the 11/2-month roller-coaster trial covered several issues:
Seven more people who lost relatives in the attacks testified on Moussaoui's behalf about how they have devoted their lives to reconciliation rather than vengeance. The defense called 13 victim relatives over two days to try to blunt the impact of nearly four dozen victims and relatives whose heart-rending testimony for the prosecution had some jurors wiping their eyes.
The defense read another government-approved stipulation acknowledging that six al-Qaida operatives who directly planned and put in place the Sept. 11 plot, including mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and planner Ramzi Binalshibh, are in U.S. custody and have not been charged. Some Sept. 11 families have criticized the government for charging only Moussaoui, whom they consider marginal, and not major players such as Shaikh Mohammed.
The concession about Reid went directly to the argument between prosecutors and defense lawyers over Moussaoui's credibility since he testified March 27. He stunned the courtroom that day by recanting his four-year-old claim of having nothing to do with Sept. 11. Instead he said he was to have hijacked a fifth jetliner, with Reid, that day. Previously, Moussaoui claimed his planned attack on the White House was part of a later plot.
Portrayed as mentall ill
Since Moussaoui testified, the court-appointed defense team -- with whom he does not cooperate -- has portrayed him as a delusional schizophrenic who lied either to achieve martyrdom through execution or to enhance his role in history.
Prosecutors have tried to shore up Moussaoui's reputation. They argue he is not insane but a committed Islamic fundamentalist jihadist who finally confessed his role and determination to kill Americans.
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