Jury

Moussaoui 'saved by lone juror'   http://www.authorsden.com/peterpaton

Zacarias Moussaoui has been sent to jail for life Only one juror prevented Zacarias Moussaoui from being sentenced to death for his role in the 9/11 attacks, the Washington Post has reported. The paper says it was contacted by the jury forewoman from the trial, after which Moussaoui was given life in jail. She said that in secret votes on three terrorism charges, the jury repeatedly voted 11-1, 10-2 and 10-2. A unanimous vote on any of the charges would have condemned Moussaoui to a lethal injection. The forewoman complained that the dissenter who kept holding out on the first charge never identified him or herself, and never put forward their arguments for discussion, he says. 'No scrutiny' "I felt frustrated," the forewoman said, "because I felt that many of us had been cheated by the anonymity of the 'no' voter. "We will never know their reason. We will never be able to hold their reason up to the light and the scrutiny of evidence, fact, and law," she told the Post. She said the discussions among the jury appeared resolutely pro-death penalty, but every time they went to a vote, at least one person would veto the execution. She described April 26 as "a very intense day". "It was as if a heavy cloud of doom had fallen over the deliberation room, and many of us realised that all our beliefs and our conclusions were being vetoed by one person," she told the paper. "We tried to discuss the pros and cons. But I would have to say that most of the arguments we heard around the deliberation table were [in favour of the death penalty]". Second juror The jury eventually ruled on 3 May that Moussaoui should be imprisoned for life with no chance of parole. The newspaper said the forewoman got in contact, and was identified as one of the jury by a reporter who recognised her from the courtroom. The judge has ordered the jurors' identities not to be revealed for their own safety. The Washington Post has already run stories it says were based on interviews with another juror - who said he voted for life in prison because he believed Moussaoui's role in the attacks was marginal. It did not say whether he had confirmed he was the single juror to hold out throughout.