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Moussaoui trial delayed
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- A federal judge Monday granted a six-month delay in the start of the trial for accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. The delay was granted after Moussaoui and prosecutors argued they could not go through all of the case documents before the trial's scheduled January start. It is the second time the judge has delayed the start of the trial. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said jury selection will now begin May 27 with the actual trial to get under way on June 30. Brinkema cited "both the overwhelming quantity of discovery materials in this case and the disruption to (Moussaoui's) trial preparation caused by the search of his cell area for inadvertently disclosed classified materials" as reasons for the delay. The government in August inadvertently gave Moussaoui more than 40 documents it should not have as part of the discovery process, in which a defendant is given material expected to be used by prosecutors at trial.
Because of the error, much of the material given to Moussaoui had to be taken back and filtered. After that process Moussaoui was again given the material without the information that should have been classified. The original date for jury selection was September 30. Brinkema had already delayed it to December. "The pleadings establish that a failure to grant a continuance could result in a miscarriage of justice, and would not allow the parties a sufficient opportunity to adequately prepare for trial," Brinkema said. Reacting to the news, Frank Dunham, who was appointed as one of the attorneys appointed to help Moussaoui represent himself, said "If one person is going to put this together he needs a lot more time than three or four people dividing it up." Dunham also said, "I think this continuance allows sufficient time, providing other pretrial matters are resolved." The judge also ruled that because of the lengthy delay, Moussaoui should be moved to a larger cell at the jail where he is being housed, the Alexandria Detention Center. "We find the defendant's continued pretrial confinement to a small, windowless cell to be both inhumane and an unreasonable barrier to his ability to work with the materials produced to him," she ruled. Moussaoui, 34, a French national of Moroccan descent, faces six conspiracy counts in connection with the September 11 hijacking attempts. The Justice Department has said it would seek the death penalty if Moussaoui is convicted. One other factor complicating the case is the arrest earlier this month of al Qaeda operative Ramzi Binalshibh, who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Moussaoui case. Binalshibh, prosecutors allege, was in London at the same time as Moussaoui in December 2000, and wired approximately $14,000 to Moussaoui in August of 2001. Binalshibh is in U.S. custody at an undetermined location undergoing interrogation. Earlier, attorneys appointed to help Moussaoui represent himself asked Brinkema to order the prosecution to present its list of witnesses and summaries of its expert testimony 60 days before the start of the trial. Prosecutors are generally required only to hand over their witness list no later than three days before trial. The defense team argues the extra time is needed because the amount of material so far handed over by the government to the defense is both massive and complex and complicated by the fact Moussaoui is acting as his own attorney in the case. "To force Mr. Moussaoui, a pro se defendant, to defend himself against such serious charges without providing him an adequate opportunity to prepare to meet the government's evidence would significantly prejudice his right to a fair trial," the defense team said its filing. "A list of numerous witnesses provided immediately before trial is akin to having no witness list at all." His lawyers argue there is precedent for giving a defense team extra time to see a witness list.
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