U.S. to seek the death penalty

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department told a court Thursday it will seek the death penalty against Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington. \nMoussaoui deserves to die because he helped plot "the largest loss of life resulting from a criminal act in the history of the United States," prosecutors said in a filing with the trial judge in suburban Alexandria, Va. \nMoussaoui, 33, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is charged with conspiring with Osama bin Laden, the hijackers and others to commit the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people. He is scheduled for trial this fall. \nFour of the six counts brought against Moussaoui carry a maximum sentence of death. \nThe decision came after weeks of deliberations inside the Justice Department and carries international implications, especially in Europe, where the terrorism investigation continues in several countries that oppose capital punishment. \nMoussaoui's home country, France, asked Ashcroft not to seek the death penalty and noted the French would not have to cooperate with U.S. authorities on the investigation if the death penalty was invoked. \nAttorney General John Ashcroft, visiting in Miami when the court was notified, asked American allies to continue their cooperation despite their misgivings. \n"We ask our counterparts in the international community to respect our sovereignty, and we respect theirs," Ashcroft said. "To the extent that they can cooperate and help us, we welcome that cooperation." \nThe decision didn't surprise Moussaoui's mother, who accused U.S. officials of "looking for someone's head" in the Sept. 11 attacks. \n"I was sure," Aicha Moussaoui said in France, referring to the expectation her son would face capital punishment. "My son is a scapegoat. They can't find the people who are truly responsible for this crime." \nMoussaoui's lead attorney, Frank Dunham Jr., told reporters that Ashcroft's announcing the death penalty filing at a news conference was "disgraceful conduct" that could prevent selection of an impartial jury. \n"We're trying to do this (select a jury) in the shadow of the Pentagon," said Dunham, federal public defender for eastern Virginia. "I am mystified as to why he feels he has to hold a televised press conference other than to influence the jury pool." \nAshcroft, a longtime death penalty advocate, said the government identified several "aggravating factors" that warrant the death penalty. "Among these reasons is the impact of the crime on thousands of victims," the attorney general said. \n"We remain committed not only to carrying out justice but also to ensuring that the rights of the victims are fully protected," he added. \nThe government said in its court filing that it would seek to prove that Moussaoui committed the offenses "in an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner in that they involved torture and serious physical abuse to the victims." \nThe offenses were committed "after substantial planning and premeditation to cause the death of a person and to commit an act of terrorism," U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty argued in the court filing with U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. \nMoussaoui participated in the planning "knowing that the act created a grave risk of death to a person" and that "the crime constituted a reckless disregard for human life," McNulty alleged. \nBefore his arrest, Moussaoui attended U.S. flight schools and "enjoyed the educational opportunities available in a free society, for the purpose of gaining specialized knowledge in flying an aircraft in order to kill as many American citizens as possible," the document said. \nThe government also highlighted the destruction caused when two of four hijacked jetliner crashed into the World Trade Center in New York: \n• 343 members of the New York City fire department died, including the majority of its upper management. It also lost 92 pieces of equipment. \n• 37 Port Authority police officers and 38 Port Authority civilian authorities died; \n• 23 New York City police officers perished. \n Moussaoui is charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, destroy aircraft, use airplanes as weapons of mass destruction and murder U.S. employees. In court papers, prosecutors accused Moussaoui of some of the same activities as the Sept. 11 hijackers by taking flight training in the United States, inquiring about crop dusting and purchasing flight-deck training videos. \n Moussaoui received money in July and August from Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, an alleged member of a German terrorist cell who was a roommate of Mohammed Atta, the suspected ringleader in the attacks, the indictment said. The FBI contends Bin al-Shibh may have been planning to be the 20th hijacker. \nThe indictment also alleged that Moussaoui attended an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and by the end of September 2000 was making moves similar to some of the hijackers. \nProsecutors in northern Virginia first gave strong signals they considered this a capital case when they wrote March 7 to dozens of victims' families to say that, pending Ashcroft's final approval, "the United States will be asking the jury to find that defendant Moussaoui should be executed should he be found guilty"