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Moussaoui Sentencing Trial

A federal judge on Monday put on hold the death penalty case against September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, declaring angrily she found it "very difficult" to proceed since a government lawyer improperly shared information with witnesses.

"In all the years I've been on the bench, I've never seen such an egregious violation of the court's rule on witnesses," U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said.

Apparently this government lawyer (works for TSA) read the transcript of the first day of the trial and discussed the case via e-mail with several witnesses who were due to be called. Hey, I'm no lawyer, but don't they cover that kind of thing in law school? Or on Law and Order?

This isn't a trivial technicality. What the hell is going on? I don't think it's asking too much to have our very best people somebody competent working for the government on a terrorism case. I mean, I don't want to make too much out of a minor matter, but if the government can't prosecute a guy like this without mucking it up royally, what can we expect the government to do well?

Get this straight in your head: He pled guilty, and the government still might have screwed up enough to have the death penalty taken off the table. Also, this is not the first time they have jeopardized the outcome of the trial. Judge Brinkema had previously taken the death penalty off the table in 2003...

...in reply to government defiance of her order to provide access to Moussaoui's witnesses. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Brinkema ruling, holding that the U.S. government could use summaries of interviews/interrogations of these witnesses. On March 21, 2005, the United States Supreme Court denied, without comment, Moussaoui's pre-trial appeal of the Fourth Circuit's decision, returning the case to Judge Brinkema.

(from Wikipedia)

Part of me says it doesn't really matter. The execution of Zacarias Moussaoui will not return the life of a single person killed in 9/11, nor prevent any future attack. He rots in prison instead of getting a lethal injection - so what?

But what is the reason for seeking the death penalty in the first place? What message of competency does it send if our government is able to botch this prosecution?

That terrorists had better watch out?