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Feds want death penalty against Moussaoui

Zacarias Moussaoui

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors have asked the attorney general to allow them to seek the death penalty against the first criminal defendant charged in connection with the September 11 attacks, according to letters sent to families of attack victims and Justice Department sources.

The letter, dated March 7, solicits families to offer victim impact testimony at the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, a French man of Moroccan heritage accused of plotting the attacks with the other 19 hijackers.

The March 7 letter is signed by Paul McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and David Novak, the lead prosecutor on the case.

Justice Department officials said the prosecutors recommended on February 15 that capital punishment be pursued in the four death-eligible counts against Moussaoui.

Attorney General John Ashcroft had no comment on the recommendation Tuesday, saying only that "a recommendation will be made to me and I will act on it."

The government has until next Friday, March 29, to file its decision with U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema at the federal courthouse in Arlington, Virginia.

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Prosecutors have suggested Moussaoui may have been the fifth hijacker of United Flight 93, the only September 11 terrorist flight with four hijackers aboard and the only one that did not hit its target, crashing in Pennsylvania.

Moussaoui was in jail on September 11, having been detained on an immigration violation since August, when a Minnesota flight school reported him.

His trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection September 30 on six conspiracy counts -- to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, to commit aircraft piracy, to destroy aircraft, to use weapons of mass destruction, to murder U.S. employees, and to destroy property.

Moussaoui is not accused of killing anyone.

More than 3,000 people died at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon or aboard the four hijacked planes.

Victim impact statements are routine in death penalty cases.

"Obviously we cannot tell the story of every victim, otherwise the trial would last forever. Therefore, we intend to tell the individual stories of approximately 30 victims who will serve as a microcosm of all," the prosecutors' letter says.

"We intend to offer such evidence and solicit your help with the prosecution."

The letter indicates that prosecutors will offer families an opportunity to meet with them starting next week in New York, followed by meetings in April in Northern Virginia and in Boston, where the two flights that hit the World Trade Center originated.

The government vows to include testimony about victims from each disaster location -- the Trade Center, the Pentagon, each flight -- and various backgrounds.

"We intend to select victims to represent all of America, meaning different races, religions, ethnic backgrounds, occupations, and economic status," the letter says.

"I am very impressed by their efforts to be humane and to accommodate," said Sally Regenhard, mother of Brooklyn firefighter Christian Michael Regenhard, who was lost in the Trade Center collapse.

"They sent a questionnaire asking us to describe our situation and the impact of the crime on us," said Stephen Push, the treasurer of Families of September 11, and a letter recipient. Push's wife was aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon.

"I am not aware of anyone who has not received it," Push said of the letter.

Besides the questionnaire, the government asked each family to mail in a photograph of each victim: "The picture should be a picture of how you would want the world to remember your loved one."

A select number of family members testified in the only previous al Qaeda trial in the United States -- last year's embassy bombings trial against four associates of Osama bin Laden.

Federal prosecutors sought the death penalty for two men convicted of directly carrying out the truck bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that left 224 people, including 12 Americans, dead.

The jury, however, could not reach a unanimous verdict for execution in either case, and the terrorists were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In the Moussaoui case, the government's letter warned families not to feel rejected if they are not chosen to testify.

"If we do not select the story of your loved one, it is not because their life was any less valuable than another. We are simply trying to put forward our best case in support of our efforts to ensure the defendant Moussaoui is properly punished," the letter said.