9/11 Families to Watch Moussaoui Face Fate

Although the government has not defined what, if any, role Moussaoui had in connection with Sept. 11, he has often been described in the media as the "20th hijacker" and has said Osama bin Laden personally instructed him to fly an airplane into the White House -- on another day. He was arrested in August 2001 after taking flying lessons in Oklahoma and then training on a Boeing 747 simulator in Minnesota.

Prosecutors have told U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema that they want to tell the stories of 45 victims through testimony of family members and people injured in the attacks. The defense team plans to put the U.S. government on trial, arguing in court papers that officials knew far more about al Qaeda's plans than Moussaoui did, but failed to stop the attacks.

Besides selecting people to share their stories of loss with the jury, the U.S. attorney's office, through its Victim Witness Assistance Unit, has sent about 6,000 spectator application forms to family members of the victims of Sept. 11. It was part of an unprecedented government outreach to the families that involved prosecutors interviewing thousands of relatives and compiling their stories into a vast database.

Congress passed a bill in 2002 authorizing the court to set up the satellite viewing sites. It was the second time that Congress and the president authorized a closed-circuit broadcast from a federal courtroom. The first was for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. His trial was moved to Denver and victims were allowed to watch the broadcast in Oklahoma City.

Patrick Woods Sr. wants to watch the trial. He will make the short trip to the U.S. District Court building in Central Islip, Long Island. His son, Patrick Woods Jr., a 36-year-old carpenter, was on the first day of a two-day job on the 103rd floor of the South Tower when the plane hit. His son called him soon after and told him that he was okay but that there was fire below him. "I got to go, Dad," he remembers his son saying. "I got to get out of here."

Now the father must go to the trial. "I just want to go and see what's going on, see how good they got this guy," Woods said of the case against Moussaoui. He said he will attend the trial once in a while. "I'm not a fanatic about it."

Two things he is sure about: Whether Moussaoui was supposed to be on a plane that day or not, he is as guilty as the al Qaeda members who were; and he does not want Moussaoui to get the death penalty.

"If you give them the chair or give them an injection or whatever, they are going to become martyrs," he said. "They all want to go see Allah, and I don't want to help them get there too fast. I would rather have them in prison for 30 or 40 years. Listen, that's the way I feel."

Sheila Langone lost two sons at the World Trade Center. Peter was a New York firefighter, and his brother, Thomas, a police officer. Both were killed trying to rescue people from the twin towers.

"My two daughters and my two daughters-in-law and myself, we're going to get the IDs you need to watch the trial," Langone said. "We're certainly going to try to go. We won't make all of the dates, but we're certainly going to make some of them."

Cathy Ann Marchese Collins, who lives on Long Island, said she has mixed feelings about going. "Maybe if they could have done this a little quicker," she said.

She lost her sister, Laura Marchese Giglio, at the World Trade Center. But that wasn't all. Her sister's death had a rippling impact on her family. Her father had a heart attack shortly after the attacks, and now he and Collins's mother have pacemakers. Collins lost her job, adopted a baby boy from Russia using some money her parents received from the victims' compensation fund and has started a new job.