ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal jury found al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible Monday to be executed, deciding that his lies to FBI agents led directly to at least one death in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.\n"You'll never get my blood, God curse you all," Moussaoui said afterward. He sat in his chair and prayed silently as the verdict was read.\nThe only person to face charges in this country in the nation's worst terrorist assault, Moussaoui now faces a second phase of his sentencing trial to determine if he actually will be put to death. That phase is set to begin Thursday morning.\nThe nine men and three women of the jury will hear testimony on whether the 37-year-old Frenchman, who was in jail at the time of the attacks, deserves to be executed for his role.\nThe testimony will include families of 9-11 victims who will describe the human impact of the al-Qaida mission that flew four jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.\nCourt-appointed defense lawyers, whom Moussaoui has tried to reject, will summon experts to suggest he is schizophrenic after an impoverished childhood during which he faced racism in France over his Moroccan ancestry.\n"By this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in this case," court spokesman Ed Adams said.\nOn the key question before the jurors, they answered yes on whether at least one victim died Sept. 11 as a direct result of Moussaoui's actions.\nHad the jury voted against his eligibility for the death penalty, Moussaoui would have been sentenced to life in prison.\nRosemary Dillard, whose husband Eddie died in the attacks, said she felt a sense of vindication from the verdict.\n"This man has no soul, has no conscience," she said of Moussaoui. "What else could we ask for but this?"\nAbraham Scott, who lost his wife Janice Marie on 9-11, said: "I describe him like a dog with rabies, one that cannot be cured. The only cure is to put him or her to death."\nBut Scott said he blamed the government equally "for not acting on certain indicators that could have prevented 9-11 happening."\nThe jury began weighing Moussaoui's fate last Wednesday. During its deliberations, jurors asked only one question, seeking a definition of "weapon of mass destruction." One of the three convictions for which Moussaoui could be executed is conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.\nThe jurors were told that a plane used as a missile -- the tactic employed on Sept. 11 -- qualifies as a weapon of mass destruction.\nMoussaoui pleaded guilty last April to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack aircraft and other crimes. At the time, he denied being part of the 9-11 plot, saying he was being trained for a separate attack, but he changed his story when he took the stand and claimed he was to have flown a hijacked airliner into the White House that day.\nMoussaoui was in jail at the time of the attacks, but prosecutors argue federal agents would have been able to thwart or at least minimize the attacks if he had revealed his al-Qaida membership and his terrorist plans when he was arrested and interrogated by federal agents.\nThe court proceeding took just nine minutes.\nU.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema accepted the verdict from the forewoman and read it to the court. The clerk asked the defendant to rise just before she read it. Moussaoui remained seated, but his lawyer rose.\nThe forewoman said the jury was unanimous on all four aspects of each of the three counts against Moussaoui. Those counts were conspiracy to commit international terrorism, to destroy aircraft and to use weapons of mass destruction.\nOn each count, the jurors found the defendant was 18 or older at the time of the offense, intentionally lied to federal agents on Aug. 16-18, 2001, and did so "contemplating the life of a person would be taken or intending that lethal force would be used." Further, they determined at least one person died Sept. 11 as a direct result of the lies.
The judge asked the jurors if their verdicts were all unanimous, and all nodded affirmatively.
