Judge allows U.S. to continue death penalty case against Moussaoui

[Roon]

Judge allows U.S. to continue death penalty case against Moussaoui
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[atreides1]

1. This is a surprise?

Why?

[Mithras61]

2. Misleading headline...

Full story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11823125/

3rd to last paragraph http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11823125/page/2/">here:

MacMahon has moved to bar the government from pursuing the death penalty. If Brinkema does that, the sentencing trial would end. Moussaoui would automatically be given life in prison without the possibility of release. And the government would probably appeal.

[SushiFan]

4. Exactly. I read the msnbc account in the link at the top of this

thread and it even said that Brinkema will question Martin tomorrow when her attorney can be present. It appears that after that, the judge will make her ruling. Someone at msnbc made a mistake with the headline.

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. And made a good share of the government's case irrelevant.

The feds really shot themselves in the foot by doing exactly what Judge Brinkema had told them not to do -- coach the witnesses.

:eyes:

[Changenow]

5. There are no laws anymore.

The government can do whatever it damn well pleases. If they can get away with this there is nothing at all they can't do.

Sandy O was a little late with the dictatorship observation.

[Igel]

6. This is the reasonable solution.

Remove the potentially tainted evidence from the evidence pool before it can void the case; it also removes a ground for appeals. But it lets the burden of proof stay where it was: the government weakened its case, now it has to make the best of it. It's what I was thinking Brinkema would wind up having to do: pitching the case wasn't a good choice, and leaving the evidence in is a bad choice.

[Jim__]

7. The case continues, but ...

without a key portion of the governments case:
Exasperated with a mounting list of government missteps, Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that no testimony about aviation security measures will be allowed during the trial into whether Moussaoui is executed or spends life in prison. more...