The Right Punishment

A terrorist will spend life behind bars.

AJURY HAS to have courage to reject capital punishment in a case like that of Zacarias Moussaoui. It's not just that the crime itself was exceptional. It's that Mr. Moussaoui so flamboyantly embraced his role, boasting of it in detail the government's evidence could not quite support, sneering at the victims of Sept. 11, declaring his joy in al-Qaeda's success. His desire for martyrdom coincided with prosecutors' desire for the death penalty. Yet after deliberating for days, the jury decided that it could not unanimously recommend Mr. Moussaoui's death.

The decision is correct as well as courageous. Mr. Moussaoui undoubtedly came to this country intending to do it great harm. But nobody knows whether the Sept. 11 attacks could have been stopped had he told authorities the truth after his detention. People should not be executed for what they meant to do or what might have happened had they acted differently. Somehow, the jury was able to see past this case's appalling context and facts and get to the prudent and just answer: life in prison.

Such a dispassionate consideration would not have been possible without the exemplary handling of this case from its outset by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. In the history of Anglo-American jurisprudence, the Moussaoui case has no precedent. It took four years to bring to trial. It has galloped up and down the federal appellate ladder, raising vexing questions as to whether this country has a viable means of trying accused al-Qaeda terrorists. Judge Brinkema presided in such a fashion as to preserve the dignity of her court -- which Mr. Moussaoui repeatedly sought to mock -- and to ensure that he would be tried fairly.