Moussaoui Jury Pauses For Query, Resumes

Panel Is Deciding If 9/11 Conspirator Is Eligible for Death

Jurors in the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui completed their first full day of deliberations yesterday, with no indication of how they would resolve the question of whether the convicted Sept. 11, 2001, conspirator is eligible for execution.

The 12-member panel paused only to ask the judge a brief question concerning the definition of weapons of mass destruction. Moussaoui is charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, one of three counts that could bring him a death sentence.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema told jurors at a brief court session that the term meant using an airplane as a missile or bomb. And with that, jurors disappeared again into their deliberation room on the seventh floor of the federal courthouse in Alexandria before quitting for the day at 4:30 p.m.

Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with al-Qaeda in the Sept. 11 airplane hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people. He is the only person convicted in a U.S. courtroom on charges stemming from the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The jury is considering whether Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty under federal law. If jurors unanimously decide that he is, they will reconvene for a second phase of the trial that will determine whether Moussaoui will be executed; if they decide that he is not eligible, Moussaoui will be sentenced to life in prison.

According to a verdict form released yesterday by the court, jurors will answer three main questions when they vote on whether to send the case forward to a second phase. They will assess whether prosecutors proved that Moussaoui intentionally lied to federal agents when he was arrested in August 2001, whether he lied "contemplating that the life of a person would be taken" and whether at least one victim died Sept. 11 because of the falsehoods.

Although Moussaoui was sitting in jail during the attacks, prosecutors argue that he should die because he lied to the FBI when he was arrested after his behavior aroused suspicion at a Minnesota flight school. Had Moussaoui confessed his knowledge of the plot, the government contends, the Sept. 11 strikes could have been stopped.

Moussaoui admitted to much of that argument when he testified this week, saying that he had misled federal agents to allow the plot to go forward -- and that he had intended to crash a hijacked plane into the White House on Sept. 11. His attorneys contend that Moussaoui was aggrandizing his role in the plot during his testimony. And even if he had lied to agents in August 2001, the defense contends, federal officials knew far more than Moussaoui did about al-Qaeda's plans yet still failed to stop the attacks.