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Defense attorney David Stern asked the jury to not to make Mohamed , seated, a martyr, saying that executing him will "guarantee him immortality"

By Phil Hirschkorn and Brian Palmer
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors asked a jury in closing arguments Monday to sentence Khalfan Khamis Mohamed to death for his role in the 1998 bombing the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

"This is a person who killed in cold blood and could do it again if given a chance," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Mohamed's defense attorney David Stern asked the jury not to make his client a martyr. "Send him to jail and he'll be forgotten," Stern said. "Kill him and you guarantee him immortality."

The same 12 jurors who found Mohamed guilty of murdering the 11 people who died in the August 7, 1998, bombing have spent two weeks hearing testimony and evidence for his sentence.

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U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand will instruct the jury Tuesday that it has two choices -- the death penalty, which they would have to approve unanimously -- or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Fitzgerald asked the jury to give the most weight to the impact of the bombing on the relatives of those killed and on Mohamed's potential for violence.

"We can't think of the victims as water under the bridge," he said. "That's what Khalfan wants us to do."

Fitzgerald spent most of Monday recalling testimony about the losses suffered by relatives of bomb victims -- including the spouses of five embassy security guards who were killed.

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.   GALLERY Images from the U.S. embassy bombing in Tanzania  Images from the U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya    MESSAGE BOARD Embassy bombing verdict

The prosecution spent three days trying to prove Mohamed would pose a danger by linking him to a November 2000 jailhouse stabbing that left a jail guard critically wounded.

The stabbing, allegedly committed by Mohamed's cellmate at the time, left corrections officer Louis Pepe blinded and brain damaged.

The cellmate, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, is also charged in the terrorism conspiracy. He faces a September trial for allegedly jabbing a sharpened comb into Pepe's eye. Prosecutors allege Mohamed was his accomplice.

"If he's not sentenced to death, he'll be sitting there ticking like a time bomb waiting for another Officer Pepe to come along," Fitzgerald said.

Stern labeled the government's assertion of Mohamed's role in the Pepe attack "speculation." The comb belonged to Salim and a ransom note bore only Salim's fingerprints.

"It's just government speculation, and you cannot send someone to death on speculation," Stern told the jury.

The defendant's mother and three siblings testified last week, asking the jury to spare his life.

Mohamed's mother sobbed Monday as Fitzgerald called her son a liar and a terrorist. U.S. marshals escorted her from the courtroom and the family followed.

"He [Mohamed] didn't give a damn about anyone else's family," Fitzgerald said. He asked the jury to ignore the fact the father of the defendant died when Mohamed was 6 years old. "A lot of people lost their fathers because of him. Don't give him credit for that."

Friends who employed and housed Mohamed in South Africa, where he fled under a false identity after the bombing, also testified to the defendant's kindness and unselfishness.

Fitzgerald told the jury Mohamed would be "ticking like a time bomb" if he was not sentenced to die.

"The ice in his veins lets him masquerade as a kind and gentle individual before he kills," Fitzgerald said.

Stern told the jury Mohamed feels remorse for his role in the embassy attack. He contended other men indicted or convicted in the conspiracy to kill Americans are either more culpable or higher ranking, yet they will not face the death penalty.

"Not only was he [Mohamed] not a leader, there was no one lower than he," Stern said.

The government contends the Islamic militant group led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden orchestrated the Tanzania bombing and the bombing at the same hour of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 213 people.

Trial evidence showed Mohamed, 27, rented the house where the Tanzania bomb was built, helped pack TNT into the bomb truck, and rode part of the way to the embassy the morning of the attack.

No federal death row inmate has been sentenced for crimes committed overseas.

"In light of the fact that the death penalty is on the books, this defendant deserves it," Fitzgerald said to the jury. "Don't get a guilt trip for what Khalfan Mohamed did."