US: The jury in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial was last night in the second day of its deliberations on whether he is eligible for the death penalty because he didn't tell the FBI what he knew of the September 11th terrorist plot.
Prosecutors argued that his silence kept the plot under wraps and thus allowed it to succeed. Defence lawyers said a dysfunctional federal law-enforcement system never would have stopped the hijackers anyway.
Both sides agreed that Moussaoui was a liar and a manipulator - but disagreed on what points they thought he should be disbelieved.
Prosecutors said he lied to FBI agents when he was arrested just 25 days before terrorists hijacked four passenger aircraft and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. Defence lawyers said he was lying now to inflate his importance in the plot, "trying to write a role in history for himself, when the truth is he's just an al-Qaeda hanger-on".
Prosecutors said they believed Moussaoui when he testified that he was in the US to pilot a fifth aircraft into the White House on the morning of September 11th. At the same time, they branded him a liar who tried to deceive FBI agents upon his arrest.
Defence lawyers also took an odd tack in their closing arguments. Faced with a client they could not control, they repeatedly castigated him as untrustworthy, someone who was trying to manipulate the jury. And they all but accused Moussaoui, who in the past had claimed he was to be part of a second wave of attacks, of committing perjury when he testified about being the fifth September 11th pilot. The 37-year-old Frenchman was apprehended on visa violations while taking jet simulator lessons in Minnesota.
Wednesday's court session concluded the first phase of the sentencing trial, convened because Moussaoui pleaded guilty to two capital murders last April. The jury must decide several key questions: Did Moussaoui lie to FBI agents in Minnesota on August 16th and 17th, 2001, when he claimed he was merely a tourist visiting this country? If so, did he lie "contemplating" that someone would die as a result? And were his lies responsible for any of the 2,792 deaths on September 11th? A decision that he lied - and that people died because of his lies - must be unanimous. If all 12 jury members agree with the prosecution that Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty, then the sentencing trial will move into a second phase.
There, the two sides will spend several weeks trying to persuade the jury to give him one of the only two options available: the death penalty or life in prison with no parole.