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Even prosecutors doubt confession

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 21, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Prosecutors acknowledged on Thursday the government has no evidence to support - and actually doubts - part of Zacarias Moussaoui's dramatic courtroom confession that he was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks: his claim that shoe bomber Richard Reid was to be on his team.

Thanks to legal maneuvering outside court, the potentially damaging concession reached the jury in a decidedly undramatic way: It was part of a stipulation agreed to by the government and read to the jury in the monotone voice of defense lawyer Alan Yamamoto.

The disclosure came shortly before the defense rested its case for sparing the life of the 37-year-old Frenchman. Testimony in the trial concluded after prosecutors presented their only rebuttal witness, psychiatrist Raymond Patterson, who examined Moussaoui. Patterson disagreed with defense experts who testified the terrorist conspirator is a paranoid schizophrenic.

On Monday, jurors who must choose execution or life in prison for Moussaoui will hear closing arguments and begin deliberations.

The windup of testimony in the 11/2-month roller coaster trial covered several issues:

Seven more people who lost relatives in the attacks testified on Moussaoui's behalf about how they have devoted their lives to reconciliation rather than vengeance. The defense called 13 victim relatives over two days to try to blunt the impact of nearly four dozen victims and relatives whose heart-rending testimony for the prosecution had some jurors wiping their eyes.

The defense read another government-approved stipulation acknowledging that six al-Qaida operatives who directly planned and put in place the Sept. 11 plot, including mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and planner Ramzi Binalshibh, are in U.S. custody and have not been charged. Some Sept. 11 families have criticized the government for charging only Moussaoui, whom they consider marginal, and not major players such as Shaikh Mohammed.

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 01:43:05]