Tough job for prosecutors to get death penalty for evil 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Wednesday, November 18th 2009, 4:31 AM
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Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to hold civilian trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed shocked many federal prosecutors, who say it's rare to win death sentences for foreign terrorists.
As a martyr of fact, it'll be hard to defend evil 9/11 mastermind
WASHINGTON - Prosecutors who will try the 9/11 plotters in New York face a "Mission Impossible" task of winning death sentences for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his henchmen.
Many veteran federal prosecutors - including those working in counterterrorism - were shocked by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision on a civilian trial in Manhattan for the jihadists.
That's because in the feds' few past tries at the death penalty for foreign terrorists, they lost. And New York juries are seen as among the least likely to agree - unanimously, as the law requires - on execution.
Still, legal experts say the Sept. 11 attacks that killed 2,973 people - most of them just blocks from the Foley Square courthouse - could be the exception.
"If New Yorkers were ever going to do it, this is the case," said Karen Greenberg, director of New York University's Center on Law and Security.
Holder, ruling out military trials, announced last week that KSM and his cohorts would be hauled from Guantanamo Bay to Manhattan to face justice. In calling for death sentences, he set a high bar for the Obama administration to be able to claim success.
The last time a Manhattan federal jury faced such a choice was July 2001. It spared two men convicted in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 people.
Seven of 12 jurors decided that, if executed, one defendant "will be seen as a martyr and his death may be exploited by others to justify future terrorist acts."
That show of mercy did not dissuade the hijackers KSM masterminded from destroying the twin towers two months later.
The feds also sought the death penalty for Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in 2006. But a lone juror in Alexandria, Va., balked, and Moussaoui is serving life at the "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colo.
Frances Townsend, an ex-New York federal prosecutor who was former President George W. Bush's top counterterror adviser, said death verdicts this time aren't out of the question, but the odds are against it.
She also maintained life without parole at "Supermax" could better service justice.
KSM has said he wants to be martyred by execution, she noted, and, "Florence would be much worse for them."
Townsend recalled conversations with legendary FBI agent John O'Neill, a friend of hers, who was killed on 9/11 as the World Trade Center's security chief.
O'Neill had brought many terrorists back to the city to face justice, but agreed with the jury that rejected death sentences in the Africa bombings. He feared death sentences would help Al Qaeda cast the condemned as martyrs.
jmeek@nydailynews.com
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This is an unnecessary risk IMHO.
