Should He Die?

The death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only 9/11 conspirator with a cool first name, gets underway today, raising the question: Should a man who killed no one be put to death?

Fed prosecutors say yes, because he is linked to the attacks and because if he had come forward the attacks could have bee prevented. He was in custody on 9/11 and certainly had the opportunity to rat out the plan.

His defense is that the FBI knew more about 9/11 than Moussaoui, yet they didn't stop the attacks. A bit far-fetched, given Moussaoui was in training to learn how to fly airplanes into buildings and our intelligence community was in the midst of a massive failure when he was arrested.

In any case, the fact remains that only theoretical blood is on Moussaoui's hands. The fact that he would love to have it be real blood doesn't really change that. The volume of the blood does.

Moussaoui knew the plot he was involved with would lead to murder on a massive scale. To me, that tips the balance. I can't think of too many cases where someone who didn't kill a person should be put to death, but in Moussaoui's case, the sooner the better.

hat-tip: Breitbart
Related Tags: Moussaoui, 9/11, September 11, Al Qaeda, Capital punishment