Jury urged to execute Moussaoui

A US jury began deliberating Zacarias Moussaouih's fate yesterday after prosecutors requested the death penalty for the September 11 conspirator and the defence implored jurors to send him to prison for life so he would not become a martyr.

The only US case related to the deadly hijacked airliner attacks went to the jury after District Judge Leonie Brinkema gave them roughly an hour of instructions.

In closing arguments, Assistant US Attorney David Raskin asked the jury to decide to execute Mr Moussaoui, who said he would have participated in the September 11 attacks if he had not been arrested the previous month on immigration charges.

"Let me be blunt, ladies and gentlemen," said Mr Raskin. "There is no place on this good Earth for Zacarias Moussaoui."

But one of the court-appointed defence lawyers, Gerald Zerkin, urged the jury to instead make a decision that "requires some courage" and sentence Mr Moussaoui to life in prison.

"He wants you to sentence him to death. He came to America to die in jihad and you are his last chance," Dr Zerkin said. "He clearly sees that as his last way to martyrdom."

The jury will just decide the sentence since Mr Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to six conspiracy counts relating the September 11 plot. Mr Moussaoui, 37, sat in the courtroom staring at the 12-member jury during most of closing proceedings. But as he left for a morning break, Mr Moussaoui said, "You'll never get me, America. Never ever."

After the jury left to begin deliberating in the midafternoon, Judge Brinkema lauded the attorneys and noted that the defence lawyers - with whom Mr Moussaoui will not speak - had an "impossible client."

"There never has been a defendant as difficult as this one," said Judge Brinkema.

Prosecutors earlier dismissed defence claims that Mr Moussaoui was mentally ill and that he sought martyrdom. Mr Raskin said Mr Moussaoui was "elated that al Qaeda murdered 2,972 innocent people on September 11".

"Enough is enough," Mr Raskin said. "It is time to put an end to his hatred and venom. It is time to sentence Zacarias Moussaoui to death."

The panel of nine men and three women must be unanimous in order to sentence Moussaoui to death. The same jury already decided Mr Moussaoui was eligible for the death penalty.

Dr Zerkin said the US government was offering up Mr Moussaoui as a "sacrificial lamb".