HOW HE SEES IT Moussaoui's antics are nothing new

Zacarias Moussaoui's request to withdraw his guilty plea is not a surprise. His bizarre conduct throughout the trial often pushed Judge Leonie M. Brinkema to the "brink" of eruption.
Judge Brinkema's frustration was evident when she sentenced Moussaoui. She spoke over his attempts to interrupt her and she told Moussaoui he would die with a "whimper." Last week the judge summarily rejected Moussaoui's request to set aside his guilty plea and proceed to trial.
The request was a long shot, federal law does not permit the withdraw of a guilty plea after sentencing. The twist is in the basis for the withdraw. Moussaoui asserted to the court that his claim to be involved in the 9/11 attacks was a "complete fabrication," created because he was convinced he could not get a fair trial. Now, after being sentenced to life in prison instead of death by lethal injection, Moussaoui feels it is possible to receive a fair trial in America.
Moussaoui's assertions although incredible are not without precedence. Andrew Kauffman in his book,Cardoza, the biography of renowned jurist Benjamin Cardoza, wrote of a similar situation faced by Cardoza before he ascended to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Feigning insanity
Cardoza, while a member of the New York Court of Appeals, was asked to pen the opinion in the appeal of Father Hans Schmidt, a Catholic priest. According to Alan A. Stone in a 2005 article in Psychiatric Times, Schmidt had feigned insanity while on trial for the murder of his pregnant lover. He was confident that he would be found not guilty by reason of insanity and deported to his native Germany. Schmidt was flabbergasted when he was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death.
At this point Schmidt's case took a turn similar to Moussaoui's. Schmidt and his attorney argued that his confession and insanity claim were a ruse. His lover actually died of a hemorrhage from a botched abortion. He in turn demanded a new trial.
Cardoza would have none of it, even though he believed there was credible evidence that the death was the result of the ill fated abortion. Schmidt committed a fraud upon the court, much in the same way that Moussaoui now asserts he had. Cardoza took the position that "no man shall be permitted to profit by his own wrong."
Brinkema, as did Cardoza, refused to accept the twisted logic of a desperate defendant. Unfortunately for Schmidt, his ruse resulted in his execution for what may not have been a capital offense. Unfortunately for America, Moussaoui's ruse resulted in a sentence of life in prison, even though the jury unanimously found he "knowingly created a grave risk of death" and committed his acts with "substantial planning," resulting in the death of nearly 3,000 innocent people.
X Matthew T. Mangino is the former district attorney of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and a featured columnist for the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. He can be reached at matthewmangino@aol.com.