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Garcia told the jury that al-'Owhali "wanted to kill, he intended to kill, and he did kill."

By From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK -- A federal jury Tuesday began deliberating whether to return a death sentence for Mohamed al-'Owhali, convicted in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand finished his instructions to the jurors and sent them out at 4 p.m.

Federal prosecutors argued for the death penalty and al-'Owhali's attorneys implored the jury to reject execution.

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"Now al-'Owhali must be held accountable for his crimes," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in his closing argument. "The only sentence that, we submit, fits the crime is the death sentence."

David Baugh, al-'Owhali's attorney, told jurors it would be wrong to order an execution. "It does not make sense to pour more blood than what has already been spilled," Baugh said in his closing argument.

The same jury found al-'Owhali guilty of helping to carry out the August 7, 1998, bombing of the embassy, which killed 213 people, including 12 Americans and 29 Kenyans who worked at the embassy, and injuring more than 4,500 other people.

"He knowingly, willingly participated in this crime," Garcia said. "He wanted to kill, he intended to kill, and he did kill."

Al-'Owhali, a 24-year-old Saudi, was found guilty of committing the murder of all 213 victims.

He also was convicted with three codefendants of participating in a worldwide terrorist conspiracy allegedly led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, whose military camps inside Afghanistan provided al-'Owhali with arms and explosives training.

The trial showed that al-'Owhali asked bin Laden for a mission in the spring of 1998, the period when bin Laden issued his most violent fatwah, or religious decree, targeting American civilians as well as military personnel.

Al-'Owhali helped prepare the Kenya truck bomb and rode in the truck's passenger seat. He fired stun grenades to scatter security guards and to get the vehicle as close to the back of the embassy as possible. He ran before the truck detonated.

"It was mass murder in cold blood," Garcia said. "He prepared for it, he studied for it, he trained for it, and he carried it out."

In his closing argument, defense attorney Baugh said al-'Owhali's engaged in "killing to stop killing," referring to the million Iraqis who have died from Gulf War airstrikes and food and medical shortages created by U.N. sanctions.

"It is the epitome of bigotry to suggest the suffering of Americans or the suffering of American allies is different than the suffering of people we don't like," Baugh said.

He suggested that bin Laden, once a part of the anti-Soviet Muslim fighting force in Afghanistan, was an American creation.

"How did bin Laden's people get terrorist training? We taught 'em,' Baugh said. He asked the jury to weigh the factors "in the world that exists."

Baugh asked the jury to distinguish "between justice and revenge" and to not "make another martyr."

"Each of you will have to decide whether to kill someone," Baugh said.

Baugh: "It does not make sense to pour more blood than what has already been spilled."

"If state sanctioning makes killing OK, I want you to know the Holocaust was state sanctioned," Baugh said.

When the penalty phase of the trial began last Wednesday, the government called more than two dozen witnesses -- relatives of bomb victims and survivors injured in the blast -- to testify on the impact of the terrorist act. Garcia asked the jury to weigh this factor the most.

"Impact that continues today. Impact that never ends," Garcia said.

He mentioned almost all of the witnesses by name, including the final one, Clara Aliganga, who described her deceased son Nathan, 21, a U.S. Marine.

"He should still be carrying this country's flag -- not coming out of the embassy wrapped in one," Garcia said.

Garcia said al-'Owhali showed reckless disregard for human life and no remorse, expressing concern that so many Kenyan civilians had died only "after he was caught."

Garcia also disputed a defense contention that al-'Owhali was less culpable than higher-ranking bin Laden operatives who are awaiting trial in the terrorist conspiracy and who will not face the death penalty.

"Focus on his actions, his crime, his active central role in this atrocity," Garcia said.

The prosecution's closing ended with an 11-minute silent scroll on a video screen showing the name of every bombing fatality, and where available, a photograph.

"Al-'Owhali is the rare exception: the criminal, the murderer who deserves the ultimate penalty which is authorized under our law," Garcia said.