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Al-'Owhali faces the death penalty for the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kenya.

From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Jurors considering whether to put an embassy bomber to death adjourned Thursday and will not resume deliberations until Monday morning.

During the day, jurors asked for information supporting the government's argument that if convicted Kenya embassy bomber Mohamed al-'Owhali were sentenced to life in prison, he would continue to pose a threat to people with whom he came into contact.

The jury is spending its second full day deliberating whether to sentence al-'Owhali to death or to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It received the case late Tuesday afternoon.

This is the same panel of seven women and five men that decided last week that al-'Owhali was guilty of carrying out with others the August 7, 1998, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and that he was guilty of killing the 213 people who died in the explosion.

CASE FILE Shattered Diplomacy: The U.S. Embassy Bombings Trial An in-depth special report on the trial of four men charged with the embassy bombings Trial reports | Timeline | Key Figures  DOCUMENTS Read al-'Owhali penalty phase closing arguments (June 5) (FindLaw) (PDF) Read al-'Owhali death penalty phase testimony (May 30-31) (FindLaw) (PDF) Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.  CNN ACCESS Bomb victim's father: 'We got 'em, Kenny Ray'    ALSO Relatives of victims, attorney for defendant react to verdict • Other terrorism cases keep legal spotlight on bin Laden   GALLERY Images from the U.S. embassy bombing in Tanzania

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The jury also convicted al-'Owhali and three co-defendants of engaging in a worldwide terrorist conspiracy to kill Americans, a conspiracy allegedly led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.

Two of the defendants, Mohamed Odeh and Wadih el Hage, face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, also convicted of carrying out a nearly simultaneous truck bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where 11 people died, will be subject to a death penalty proceeding after al-'Owhali's sentence is decided.

"Future dangerousness" is one of 18 factors -- some proposed by the government, some proposed by the defense -- that the jury must consider on its verdict form before addressing the sentencing decision.

Other "aggravating factors" offered by the government are that al-'Owhali committed his offense after substantial planning and premeditation; that he was motivated by victims being high-ranking U.S. officials; and that he caused injury, harm, and loss to bombing survivors and bombing victims' families.

Prosecutors asked the jury to give the last factor, victim impact, the most weight. They called more than two dozen American and Kenyan victims to testify.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told the jury that al-'Owhali would be a threat even behind bars.

"He'll spend 40 or 50 years in prison, 40 or 50 years in American prison with American guards, guards that he views in his twisted way as the enemy, the representative of his enemy, the United States," Fitzgerald said.

Al-'Owhali is among a dozen inmates in federal custody associated with terrorism and presently detained under "special administrative measures," the strictest conditions of confinement, which can be renewed every four months.

The government was allowed to tell the jury that these measures are not foolproof -- that a serious assault on a jail guard occurred in a cell where two of those detainees were incarcerated under the measures.

The jury was not told the assault occurred in the Manhattan jail attached to the courthouse, where al-'Owhali has been incarcerated for nearly three years, or that two co-defendants are implicated in the assault.

"What does he have to lose? He's already killed 200 people. He's trained in hostage-taking. He's trained in taking over buildings. And every day, every day for 50 years those guards are going to be on the alert for Mr. al-'Owhali," Fitzgerald said.

In a pair of notes Thursday, the jury asked for clarification on the special administrative measures.

Further down the verdict form come the questions about "mitigating factors" offered by the defense. These include that al-'Owhali, a 24-year-old Saudi, has no prior criminal record and that other conspirators do not face the death penalty.

Defense attorneys asked jurors to consider al-'Owhali's post-arrest statement that he did not intend for Kenyan civilians to be killed and that bin Laden told him embassies were legitimate military targets because of U.S. intelligence officers stationed there.

Al-'Owhali's lawyers also argued that his indoctrination in conservative Muslim teachings drove his conduct, motivating him especially to take action to save other Muslims, such as Iraqis, from punitive U.S. policies.