Without comment, the court denied an appeal by Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in an American court with participating in the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Moussaoui was challenging a ruling by the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., nearly a year ago that restored his liability for the death penalty and held that he was not entitled to have access to captured members of Al Qaeda who could provide helpful testimony at his trial. Federal District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Alexandria, Va., had ruled that the government could not impose the death penalty on a defendant who was denied access to favorable witnesses. She said that the government would have to provide a videoconference for depositions from the witnesses, who have told interrogators overseas that Mr. Moussaoui had nothing to do with the plot. In overturning her decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that instead of video depositions, to which the government objected, adequate "substitutions" could be devised in the form of written summaries of the witnesses' answers to questions. In his Supreme Court appeal, Moussaoui v. United States, No. 04-8385, Mr. Moussaoui's lawyers argued that he could not get a fair trial without being able to exercise his right under the Constitution to receive all favorable evidence in the government's possession and to have access to witnesses. Indicted three years ago, Mr. Moussaoui has not yet gone to trial. [more]
- The Unusual case of Zacarias Moussaoui [more]