tough situation... They will find that the 5th amendment applies to him, and the courts won't give him the death penalty for exercising it.
Moussaoui gets life in prison. As he walked out of court, he said "America, you lost. I won." I hope they don't isolate him in prison. Let the inmates have fun with him.
He knows he lost. He wanted to me a martyr to the cause and he won't be one now. He'll just disppear into some Federal SuperMax lockup until he drops dead. Let him think about it for 50 years while he's staring at the same blank wall. I'd give him no contact with anybody. No prisoners, no guards, and certainly no media. If his dear old mama wants to fly over from France at her expense and visit him for 20 minutes, let her. Then he can think about that too. He'll be talking to himself within a year.
How long do you think he'll last in prison? Something tells me the guards won't necessarily jump at the chance to protect him when he gets jumped by a prison gang.
I was discussing this with someone earlier and how inmates might make his life worse than if we would have given him the death penalty. I began to question the American pride that prisoners possess. Sure, inmates hate pedophiles and perhaps a few other particular criminals, but how much pride do they really have in a country that locked them away? I don't know the answer because I don't personally know any inmates, but I suspect their allegance to America is much less than that of us or the average American. Moussaoui's life in prison might not be as bad as we had hoped... but it's probably better that we go on thinking it will be as it helps us sleep better at night.
Constitutional rights to due process are afforded to all citizens and legal residents of the US. If one is a visitor on a legal visa, he may also be afforded these rights. One of the radio commentators this morning who has read the lengthy statement by the jury felt like much of their reluctance to execute was that Moussaoui did not directly participate in the terror acts and was in jail at the time. Furthermore they felt that the prosecution was trying to use his right not to incriminate himself under police questioning as evidence he caused the death of another. Apparently they felt that Moussaoui was clearly guilty of conspiracy to murder, but not of actually perpetrating the actual crime. Thus the life sentence.
No, he'll get the special treatment that high-profile prisoners get to keep him out of the press. Just like Charles Manson, Mark David Chapman, and Sirhan Sirhan, he won't be given much in the way of open contact with other prisoners. No chance to grandstand again. He'll be going into the Black Hole of Calcutta.
