High Court Won't Hear Moussaoui's Appeal
March 21, 2005
High Court Won't Hear Moussaoui's Appeal
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, March 21 - The Supreme Court declined today to interfere with the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in an American court with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The justices rejected Mr. Moussaoui's challenge to a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond. That court held last year that prosecutors could seek the death penalty against Mr. Moussaoui but that defense lawyers could introduce testimony from captured terrorist suspects to try to show that the defendant had nothing to do with the plot.
With the ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on the bench for the first time since October, the Supreme Court refused without comment to even consider overturning the Fourth Circuit's conclusion.
Now that the justices have declined, as expected, to look at Mr. Moussaoui's case, at least at this stage, it goes back to the federal district court, in Alexandria, Va., where the trial is to be held, perhaps later this year.
Federal District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema will attempt to work out a compromise on the issue that had threatened to derail the case: how to grant Mr. Moussaoui access to information from captured members of Al Qaeda while preserving the government's rights to interrogate enemy combatants without interruption.
Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen, was arrested a month before the 2001 attacks after arousing suspicion at a Minnesota flight school. He has acknowledged his Al Qaeda membership and his loyalty to Osama bin Laden, but he has denied taking part in the attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
Judge Brinkema ruled in October 2003 that Mr. Moussaoui was a "remote or minor participant" in Al Qaeda planning, and that prosecutors could not seek the death penalty. She said it would be unfair to let prosecutors try to link him to the Sept. 11 conspiracy if he were denied access to witnesses who did participate in the scheme.
Last April 22, a panel of the Fourth Circuit reversed Judge Brinkema in declaring that prosecutors could seek the death penalty, but upheld her position that the defense had to have some access to captured terrorist suspects. On Sept. 13, the full Fourth Circuit upheld the panel's ruling, and today the Supreme Court left the Fourth Circuit ruling intact.
Chief Justice Rehnquist, 80, has been taking part in conferences at the Supreme Court building, but his appearance on the bench today was his first since he began treatment for thyroid cancer.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/21/politics/21cnd-moussaoui.html?oref=login
High Court Won't Hear Moussaoui's Appeal
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, March 21 - The Supreme Court declined today to interfere with the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in an American court with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The justices rejected Mr. Moussaoui's challenge to a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond. That court held last year that prosecutors could seek the death penalty against Mr. Moussaoui but that defense lawyers could introduce testimony from captured terrorist suspects to try to show that the defendant had nothing to do with the plot.
With the ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on the bench for the first time since October, the Supreme Court refused without comment to even consider overturning the Fourth Circuit's conclusion.
Now that the justices have declined, as expected, to look at Mr. Moussaoui's case, at least at this stage, it goes back to the federal district court, in Alexandria, Va., where the trial is to be held, perhaps later this year.
Federal District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema will attempt to work out a compromise on the issue that had threatened to derail the case: how to grant Mr. Moussaoui access to information from captured members of Al Qaeda while preserving the government's rights to interrogate enemy combatants without interruption.
Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen, was arrested a month before the 2001 attacks after arousing suspicion at a Minnesota flight school. He has acknowledged his Al Qaeda membership and his loyalty to Osama bin Laden, but he has denied taking part in the attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
Judge Brinkema ruled in October 2003 that Mr. Moussaoui was a "remote or minor participant" in Al Qaeda planning, and that prosecutors could not seek the death penalty. She said it would be unfair to let prosecutors try to link him to the Sept. 11 conspiracy if he were denied access to witnesses who did participate in the scheme.
Last April 22, a panel of the Fourth Circuit reversed Judge Brinkema in declaring that prosecutors could seek the death penalty, but upheld her position that the defense had to have some access to captured terrorist suspects. On Sept. 13, the full Fourth Circuit upheld the panel's ruling, and today the Supreme Court left the Fourth Circuit ruling intact.
Chief Justice Rehnquist, 80, has been taking part in conferences at the Supreme Court building, but his appearance on the bench today was his first since he began treatment for thyroid cancer.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/21/politics/21cnd-moussaoui.html?oref=login
posted by JimG at 2:47 PM
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