Moussaoui motion released
A U.S. District judge in Alexandria, Va., has now put on the public record a redacted version of a motion by Zacarias Moussaoui asking that his death sentencing proceeding be split into three parts, in order to avoid what he fears is prejudice from government displays of the sights and sounds of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Moussaoui is the only person charged in the U.S. for crimes related to the 9/11 attacks.
His motion, previously under seal, was discussed in this post on Oct. 20. That post was unable to fully discuss the motion because, at the time, the document remained undisclosed.
The redacted version of the motion can be found at the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, as a docket entry in 01-455-A, U.S. v. Moussaoui. The motion itself is at docket No. 1337, dated Oct. 3. The judge’s order releasing that document is docket No. 1357, dated Nov. 1.
This District Court has made its docket sheet and linked documents available in a publicly accessable Web page, sparing interested users the need to go through the cumbersome Pacer system.
Moussaoui asks for three separate hearings for “threshold,” eligibility, and selection. Most of his argument concerns the need to separate the selection step, which the Government is not opposing. In footnote 26, he concedes, “The Defendant does not claim that the factors supporting separate hearings for the aggravating [eligibility] factors and the selection phase are nearly as compelling as those supporting a separate hearing for the threshold factor.”
That is an understatement, in my humble opinion. I would be astonished if the disputed portion of this motion is granted.
Comment by Kent Scheidegger — November 2, 2005 @ 2:14 pm