For the record, I fully support the life sentence handed down for Zacarias Moussaoui.  In this particular case, a death sentence would have made him a martyr, something America really shouldn’t do in these cases.  Not only that, but the man is a nut, someone al-Qaida didn’t even trust to participate in the main attacks and who couldn’t even make it through flight training.  His performance in court strengthens the argument that he’s just a whackjob, an inept bit player at best, the al-Qaida wannabe that al-Qaida never wanted.  His link to 9/11 is seriously in question, something he has claimed but which remains unclear and unproven and doubtful.  Not only that, but he was in jail on 9/11.  Conspiracy is not action, yet many wanted to kill him simply because he may have participated given the chance and al-Qaida’s interest in having a nutjob involved in such a serious plan.

More generally, I don’t agree with the death penalty under any circumstances.  I won’t beat this topic to death, but let me ramble briefly.

As a deterrent, capital punishment fails miserably.  If it really worked like that, Texas would be eternally free of capital crimes as it practices the death penalty with unequaled abandon.

State-sponsored murder is still murder, and telling our children they shouldn’t kill someone when the state does it in large numbers can only cause further societal degradation by way of confusion and mixed messages about the sanctity of life.  What it does teach is that human lives can be weighed to determine which are worthy of protection and which can be ended at will.

Killing another human being after the fact is not punishment; it’s revenge.  You see, punishment is meant to teach a lesson.  It’s difficult to learn anything after being killed.

Unlike life in prison, you can not end a death penalty when new evidence surfaces after initial sentencing.  One need only examine the spate of long-term jail sentences and death row inmates released long after they are sentenced based on new vindicating evidence to understand why the death penalty is far too permanent to be exacted by our imperfect legal system.

Capital punishment goes beyond the odious “eye for an eye” mentality as it is not necessary to kill someone in order for the state to deem you worthy of death.  What message does this send?  And to whom?

Ultimately, I’m quite satisfied with the Moussaoui verdict and punishment.  It loses him in a maximum security dungeon somewhere, isolates him from everything and everyone, and makes him forgettable.  This is a better option that creating a martyr, especially when we can’t even demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that he bore any direct responsibility for 9/11.