Chicago Tribune Editorial - `My government let me down'
`My government let me down'
Published March 16, 2006. Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
The government considers Zacarias Moussaoui a fitting candidate for execution. He is an admitted terrorist who pleaded guilty last year to being part of the Al Qaeda plot that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings. He was jailed on unrelated charges weeks before the attacks, but prosecutors contend he could have blown the whistle and prevented the carnage.
A government attorney assisting the prosecution team has now done serious damage to the government's case at Moussaoui's ongoing death-penalty trial. Carla Martin, a lawyer for the Transportation Security Administration, allegedly violated a direct court order by coaching prospective prosecution witnesses and providing them with trial transcripts. In an e-mail to the witnesses, Martin suggested the government case wasn't going well and needed help.
Overzealous government prosecutions pose a serious problem in the criminal justice system. A 1999 Tribune series highlighted how some prosecutors routinely skirt rules and deceive juries with impunity, which has led to reversals on appeal of hundreds of homicide convictions across the nation. Prosecutorial misconduct ill-serves justice. The wrong people get punished. Crimes go unsolved. Survivors are denied closure.
In the Moussaoui case, Martin's alleged witness tampering brought a swift rebuke from presiding Judge Leonie Brinkema. She questioned whether the 37-year-old Moussaoui could now get a fair trial. The breach prompted a daylong hearing Tuesday during which Brinkema accused Martin of deceiving other lawyers in the case with "a baldfaced lie" and warned the lawyer she could face criminal or civil sanctions.
The judge rejected a defense motion to drop the death penalty as a possible punishment. But she all but gutted the government's case for sentencing by ruling that seven federal aviation officials coached by Martin would not be allowed to take the stand. The government is considering an appeal. The seven were expected to testify that airport security could have foiled the hijackers had Moussaoui been forthcoming about plans to use box cutters and small knives to commandeer planes.
The turn of events sickened Rosemary Dillard, whose husband died in the Pentagon attack. "I felt like my heart had been ripped out," she said after Brinkema's ruling. "... I felt like my government let me down one more time."
The government's case for execution isn't a slam-dunk, regardless of the flap over expert testimony. In April, Moussaoui, a self-professed Al Qaeda member, pleaded guilty to six conspiracy charges connected to the Sept. 11 attacks, including four that could lead to the death penalty. Even so, Moussaoui claimed at the time that he was part of a different plot, one that was never carried out. Moussaoui claimed that his mission was to fly a hijacked Boeing 747 into the White House if he could not negotiate the release of militant Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
Moussaoui isn't going anywhere. The alternative to the death penalty is a life sentence. But Martin's heavy-handed tactics may undermine the very result that the government says best serves the cause of justice.
The Moussaoui case serves as a vivid reminder of the corrosive impact of prosecutorial misconduct. When a prosecutor breaks the rules, it's not just the defendant who loses. We all do.
Published March 16, 2006. Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
The government considers Zacarias Moussaoui a fitting candidate for execution. He is an admitted terrorist who pleaded guilty last year to being part of the Al Qaeda plot that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings. He was jailed on unrelated charges weeks before the attacks, but prosecutors contend he could have blown the whistle and prevented the carnage.
A government attorney assisting the prosecution team has now done serious damage to the government's case at Moussaoui's ongoing death-penalty trial. Carla Martin, a lawyer for the Transportation Security Administration, allegedly violated a direct court order by coaching prospective prosecution witnesses and providing them with trial transcripts. In an e-mail to the witnesses, Martin suggested the government case wasn't going well and needed help.
Overzealous government prosecutions pose a serious problem in the criminal justice system. A 1999 Tribune series highlighted how some prosecutors routinely skirt rules and deceive juries with impunity, which has led to reversals on appeal of hundreds of homicide convictions across the nation. Prosecutorial misconduct ill-serves justice. The wrong people get punished. Crimes go unsolved. Survivors are denied closure.
In the Moussaoui case, Martin's alleged witness tampering brought a swift rebuke from presiding Judge Leonie Brinkema. She questioned whether the 37-year-old Moussaoui could now get a fair trial. The breach prompted a daylong hearing Tuesday during which Brinkema accused Martin of deceiving other lawyers in the case with "a baldfaced lie" and warned the lawyer she could face criminal or civil sanctions.
The judge rejected a defense motion to drop the death penalty as a possible punishment. But she all but gutted the government's case for sentencing by ruling that seven federal aviation officials coached by Martin would not be allowed to take the stand. The government is considering an appeal. The seven were expected to testify that airport security could have foiled the hijackers had Moussaoui been forthcoming about plans to use box cutters and small knives to commandeer planes.
The turn of events sickened Rosemary Dillard, whose husband died in the Pentagon attack. "I felt like my heart had been ripped out," she said after Brinkema's ruling. "... I felt like my government let me down one more time."
The government's case for execution isn't a slam-dunk, regardless of the flap over expert testimony. In April, Moussaoui, a self-professed Al Qaeda member, pleaded guilty to six conspiracy charges connected to the Sept. 11 attacks, including four that could lead to the death penalty. Even so, Moussaoui claimed at the time that he was part of a different plot, one that was never carried out. Moussaoui claimed that his mission was to fly a hijacked Boeing 747 into the White House if he could not negotiate the release of militant Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
Moussaoui isn't going anywhere. The alternative to the death penalty is a life sentence. But Martin's heavy-handed tactics may undermine the very result that the government says best serves the cause of justice.
The Moussaoui case serves as a vivid reminder of the corrosive impact of prosecutorial misconduct. When a prosecutor breaks the rules, it's not just the defendant who loses. We all do.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 7:11 AM
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