Breitbart reported yesterday that Zacarias Moussaoui, "the twentieth hijacker," was handed a recommendation by the jury of life in prison for his crimes. My Way News reported today that the judge sentenced him according to the jury recommendation. I saw no reference in either story to the possibility of parole, so I'm not sure if he could get out someday.
From the White House, President Bush said the verdict "represents the end of this case but not an end to the fight against terror." He said Moussaoui got a fair trial and the jury spared his life, "which is something that he evidently wasn't willing to do for innocent American citizens."
Peggy Noonan has the best analysis of the sentence, in today's Opinion Journal. "They Should Have Killed Him."
No one wants to say, "They should have killed him." This is understandable, for no one wants to be called vengeful, angry or, far worse, unenlightened. But we should have put him to death, and for one big reason.
He knew the trigger was about to be pulled. He knew innocent people had been targeted, and were about to meet gruesome, unjust deaths.
He could have stopped it. He did nothing. And so 2,700 people died.
She concludes this way:
I happen, as most adults do, to feel a general ambivalence toward the death penalty. But I know why it exists. It is the expression of a certitude, of a shared national conviction, about the value of a human life. It says the deliberate and planned taking of a human life is so serious, such a wound to justice, such a tearing at the human fabric, that there is only one price that is justly paid for it, and that is the forfeiting of the life of the perpetrator. It is society's way of saying that murder is serious, dreadfully serious, the most serious of all human transgressions.
It is not a matter of vengeance. Murder can never be avenged, it can only be answered.
If Moussaoui didn't deserve the death penalty, who does? Who ever did?
And if he didn't receive it, do we still have it?
I don't want to end with an air of hopelessness, so here's some hope, offered to the bureau of prisons. I hope he doesn't get cable TV in his cell. I hope he doesn't get to use his hour a day in general population getting buff and converting prisoners to jihad. I hope he isn't allowed visitors with whom he can do impolite things like plot against our country. I hope he isn't allowed anniversary interviews. I hope his jolly colleagues don't take captives whom they threaten to kill unless Moussaoui is released.
I hope he doesn't do any more damage. I hope this is the last we hear of him. But I'm not hopeful about my hopes.
That about says it all.
3 comments:
If we're lucky, he'll be granted access to the yard with the rest of the prison population.
I am glad he didn't achieve martyrdom because I believe he wanted that, but true justice would have meant his death. I'm sure he will suffer where he is, in the kind of situation he'll be in.
If there is a Christian ministry at this prison I hope he will be subjected to it somehow and I hope it tortures him into submission.
He is no worse than Son of Sam- David Berkowitz... and Berkowitz now has a Christian ministry of his own in prison, (thanks to the witness of a Pentocostal inmate)and has been featured on Focus on the Family with James Dobson.
Now that his fate is sealed, perhaps Moussaoui's conversion would be the best outcome on many levels.
It sure is a testament to our Lord and faith. A person this vile can ask for forgiveness, repent and accept the gift of salvation will truly enter paradise.
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