Post by Bill on Apr 6, 2006 17:12:05 GMT -5
Alexandria, Virginia - Jurors in the trial of confessed September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui heard tearful testimony Thursday by a woman who saw people jump from the burning World Trade Center and a police officer who lost his wife in the attack.
The first witness to testify in the sentencing phase of Moussaoui's death penalty trial - the only US trial on charges related to the 2001 attacks - was former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
In a graphic account, he relived the morning of the attacks for the 12-member jury, most viscerally when he described seeing people plunging from the mangled, flaming twin towers to their death.
'My eyes just caught a man ... and I realized that I was watching this man throw himself off, fleeing the flames and smoke. I froze,' said Giuliani, who was mayor at the time.
Most harrowing, he said, was seeing two people jump who appeared to be holding hands.
'That memory, of all memories that stuck in your mind, comes back to me every day,' Giuliani said. 'This was a war. It was a battle. We were attacked.'
Moussaoui, 37, faces death or life in prison. He pleaded guilty last year to six counts of conspiracy related to the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
To bolster their case for execution, prosecutors also had the court show the jurors videos of people jumping and of each plane hitting the twin towers.
Tamar Rosbrook, who was on a business trip to New York and watched from a nearby hotel's 35th floor as people fell from the twin towers, repeatedly choked up and halted her testimony, at one point sobbing quietly for some time.
'I started screaming, 'These are people, that's a person,'' said Rosbrook, who was with her husband.
Fighting back tears, she recalled watching a man on a ledge trying to decide where to jump. 'I knew that this was not going to work out for him,' she said.
New York police officer James Smith broke down in tears while talking about his wife, a fellow police officer who died trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center.
None of the witnesses directly implicated Moussaoui, who showed no emotion during the testimony but appeared to listen intently during Giuliani's statement.
Prosecutors allege that Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan descent, contributed to the September 11 carnage because he withheld knowledge of plot after his arrest three weeks before the attacks.
To obtain a death sentence, prosecutors must prove that Moussaoui was responsible for at least one death on September 11. In a key step Monday, the jury found him eligible to be executed.
Prosecutors planned to elicit testimony from up to 40 family members of victims and to play recordings of frantic calls to New York emergency services after the planes hit the towers.
The jury will also hear the previously unreleased cockpit voice recording of Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers rose up against the hijackers. The fourth plane hit the Pentagon military headquarters just outside Washington.
In opening remarks Thursday, prosecutor Robert Spencer told the jury, 'You will hear about the horror of the murders and the enormity of the attacks. Those voices, that evidence will be all you need.'
In stunning testimony last month, Moussaoui said he knew of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center and claimed he was meant to fly a fifth plane into the White House on September 11. He also admitted he lied to FBI agents about the plot.
His court-appointed defence team, whose advice he has generally refused, have sought to cast doubt on his mental soundness.
Lawyer Gerald Zerkin said Thursday that Moussaoui appeared to be schizophrenic and urged jurors to consider 'the possibility of a sentence less than death.'
news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1153164.php/
Tearful_witnesses_recall_9_11_at_US_death_penalty_trial__Roundup_
The first witness to testify in the sentencing phase of Moussaoui's death penalty trial - the only US trial on charges related to the 2001 attacks - was former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
In a graphic account, he relived the morning of the attacks for the 12-member jury, most viscerally when he described seeing people plunging from the mangled, flaming twin towers to their death.
'My eyes just caught a man ... and I realized that I was watching this man throw himself off, fleeing the flames and smoke. I froze,' said Giuliani, who was mayor at the time.
Most harrowing, he said, was seeing two people jump who appeared to be holding hands.
'That memory, of all memories that stuck in your mind, comes back to me every day,' Giuliani said. 'This was a war. It was a battle. We were attacked.'
Moussaoui, 37, faces death or life in prison. He pleaded guilty last year to six counts of conspiracy related to the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
To bolster their case for execution, prosecutors also had the court show the jurors videos of people jumping and of each plane hitting the twin towers.
Tamar Rosbrook, who was on a business trip to New York and watched from a nearby hotel's 35th floor as people fell from the twin towers, repeatedly choked up and halted her testimony, at one point sobbing quietly for some time.
'I started screaming, 'These are people, that's a person,'' said Rosbrook, who was with her husband.
Fighting back tears, she recalled watching a man on a ledge trying to decide where to jump. 'I knew that this was not going to work out for him,' she said.
New York police officer James Smith broke down in tears while talking about his wife, a fellow police officer who died trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center.
None of the witnesses directly implicated Moussaoui, who showed no emotion during the testimony but appeared to listen intently during Giuliani's statement.
Prosecutors allege that Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan descent, contributed to the September 11 carnage because he withheld knowledge of plot after his arrest three weeks before the attacks.
To obtain a death sentence, prosecutors must prove that Moussaoui was responsible for at least one death on September 11. In a key step Monday, the jury found him eligible to be executed.
Prosecutors planned to elicit testimony from up to 40 family members of victims and to play recordings of frantic calls to New York emergency services after the planes hit the towers.
The jury will also hear the previously unreleased cockpit voice recording of Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers rose up against the hijackers. The fourth plane hit the Pentagon military headquarters just outside Washington.
In opening remarks Thursday, prosecutor Robert Spencer told the jury, 'You will hear about the horror of the murders and the enormity of the attacks. Those voices, that evidence will be all you need.'
In stunning testimony last month, Moussaoui said he knew of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center and claimed he was meant to fly a fifth plane into the White House on September 11. He also admitted he lied to FBI agents about the plot.
His court-appointed defence team, whose advice he has generally refused, have sought to cast doubt on his mental soundness.
Lawyer Gerald Zerkin said Thursday that Moussaoui appeared to be schizophrenic and urged jurors to consider 'the possibility of a sentence less than death.'
news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1153164.php/
Tearful_witnesses_recall_9_11_at_US_death_penalty_trial__Roundup_