Moussaoui case over? No appeal to be filed.

[FBaggins]

Source: Scotusblog

The government’s headline-making prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui — the only person charged with any crime related to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — will not be tested in the Supreme Court, at least for some time. The time to file an appeal ran out on July 30, and his court-appointed lawyers have since advised the Fourth Circuit Court that Moussaoui did not authorize them to file a petition for review by the Justices. The attorneys have now been allowed to withdraw from the case.


More than eight years ago, in December 2001, Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was charged with six counts of conspiracy in connection with the terrorist assaults. At various points in the case, he has been referred to as the “20th hijacker,” although that was never proven because he pleaded guilty in April 2005. The jury, after seven days of deliberation, refused prosecutors’ request to impose the death penalty; he was then sentenced to life in prison without the chance for release.

Once before, his defense attorneys tried to take the case to the Supreme Court, after the Fourth Circuit Court had turned down a request for his attorneys to directly question others allegedly involved in the 9/11 plot, who were being held by the U.S. government pending their prosecution (which has not yet gone to trial; it remains unclear where they will be tried). The Supreme Court refused to hear that challenge on March 21, 2005. It was after that that Moussaoui chose to plead guilty to all charges.



Read more: http://www.scotusblog.com/blog/2010/08/18/moussaoui-case-over/#more-24327