Notice to Seek the Death Penalty Against Moussaoui

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

Alexandria Division

NOTICE OF INTENT TO SEEK A SENTENCE OF DEATH

The United States of America here­by noti­fies the Court and the defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, and his coun­sel, that in the event of the defen­dan­t’s con­vic­tion on any of Counts One, Two, Three, or Four of the Indictment, where­in the defen­dant is charged respec­tive­ly with Conspiracy to Commit Acts of Terrorism Transcending National Boundaries in vio­la­tion of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2332b(a)(2) & (c), Conspiracy to Commit Aircraft Piracy in vio­la­tion of Title 49, United States Code, Sections 46502(a)(1)(A) and (a)(2)(B), Conspiracy to Destroy Aircraft in vio­la­tion of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 32(a)(7) and 34, and Conspiracy to Use Weapons of Mass Destruction in vio­la­tion of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332a(a), the Government will seek the sen­tence of death, in that the cir­cum­stances of the offens­es are such that a

I. Statutory Threshold Findings Enumerated in 18 U.S.C. § 3591(a)(2)(C) & (D):

The Government will seek to prove the fol­low­ing thresh­old find­ings as the basis for impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty in rela­tion to Counts One, Two, Three, and Four of the Indictment:
1. The defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, inten­tion­al­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in an act, con­tem­plat­ing that the life of a per­son would be tak­en or intend­ing that lethal force would be used in con­nec­tion with a per­son, oth­er than one of the par­tic­i­pants in the offense, and the vic­tims died as a direct result of the act. Section 3591(a)(2)(C).
2. The defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, inten­tion­al­ly and specif­i­cal­ly engaged in an act of vio­lence, know­ing that the act cre­at­ed a grave risk of death to a per­son, oth­er than one of the par­tic­i­pants in the offense, such that par­tic­i­pa­tion in the act con­sti­tut­ed a reck­less dis­re­gard for human life and the vic­tims died as a direct result of the act. Section 3591(a)(2)(D).

II. Statutory Aggravating Factors Enumerated under 18 U.S.C. § 3592(c)(1) through (16):

1. The Government will seek to prove the fol­low­ing statu­to­ry aggra­vat­ing fac­tors as the basis for impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty in rela­tion to Counts One, Two, Three, and Four of the Indictment:
2. In com­mit­ting the offens­es described in Counts One, Two, Three, and Four, defen­dant ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI know­ing­ly cre­at­ed a grave risk of death to one or more per­sons in addi­tion to the vic­tims of the offense. Section 3592(c)(5).
3. The defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, com­mit­ted the offens­es described in Counts One, Two, Three, and Four in an espe­cial­ly heinous, cru­el, and depraved man­ner in that they involved tor­ture and seri­ous phys­i­cal abuse to the vic­tims. Section 3592(c)(6).
4. The defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, com­mit­ted the offens­es described in Counts One, Two, Three, and Four after sub­stan­tial plan­ning and pre­med­i­ta­tion to cause the death of a per­son and com­mit an act of ter­ror­ism. Section 3592(c)(9).

III. Other Non-Statutory Aggravating Factors Identified under 18 U.S.C. § 3593(a) and (c):

The Government will seek to prove the fol­low­ing non-statu­to­ry aggra­vat­ing fac­tors as the basis for impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty in rela­tion to Counts One, Two, Three, and Four of the Indictment:
1. On or about February 23, 2001, defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, a French cit­i­zen, entered the United States, where he then enjoyed the edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able in a free soci­ety, for the pur­pose of gain­ing spe­cial­ized knowl­edge in fly­ing an air­craft in order to kill as many American cit­i­zens as pos­si­ble.
2. The actions of defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, result­ed in the deaths of approx­i­mate­ly 3,000 peo­ple from more than 15 coun­tries (the largest loss of life result­ing from a crim­i­nal act in the his­to­ry of the United States of America).
3. The actions of defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, result­ed in seri­ous phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al injuries, includ­ing maim­ing, dis­fig­ure­ment, and per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ty, to numer­ous vic­tims who sur­vived the offense.
4. As demon­strat­ed by the vic­tims’ per­son­al char­ac­ter­is­tics as indi­vid­ual human beings and the impact of their deaths upon their fam­i­lies, friends, and co-work­ers, the defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, caused injury, harm, and loss to the vic­tims, their fam­i­lies, their friends, and their co-work­ers.
5. The actions of defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, were intend­ed to cause, and in fact did cause, tremen­dous dis­rup­tion to the func­tion of the City of New York and its econ­o­my as evinced by the following:

a. The deaths of 343 mem­bers of the New York City Fire Department, includ­ing the major­i­ty of its upper man­age­ment, and the loss of approx­i­mate­ly 92 pieces of fire-fight­ing appa­ra­tus includ­ing fire engines, lad­der com­pa­nies, ambu­lances and oth­er res­cue vehi­cles;
b. The deaths of 37 Port Authority offi­cers, the deaths of 38 Port Authority civil­ian employ­ees, the destruc­tion of the head­quar­ters of the Port Authority, and the loss of approx­i­mate­ly 114 Port Authority vehi­cles;
c. The deaths of 23 New York City police offi­cers and the loss of numer­ous vehi­cles used by the New York Police Department to fight crime;
d. The deaths of 3 New York state court offi­cers;
e. The death of 1 Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI);
f. The death of 1 Master Special Officer of the United States Secret Service, the destruc­tion of the New York field office for the United States Secret Service, the loss of 184 vehi­cles used by the United States Secret Service, includ­ing 7 armored lim­ou­sines, the loss of all of the weapons stored in the New York field office for the United States Secret Service, the destruc­tion of com­mu­ni­ca­tion equip­ment used by the New York field office for the United States Secret Service, and the destruc­tion of evi­dence stored in the New York field office for the United States Secret Service,
g. The destruc­tion of the United States Customs build­ing, which housed all com­po­nents of the United States Customs Service in New York City, the destruc­tion of the lab­o­ra­to­ry uti­lized by the United States Customs Service in its north­east region, the loss of 50 vehi­cles used by the United States Customs Service to fight crime, the loss of the major­i­ty of the weapons stored in the New York field office for the United States Customs Service, the destruc­tion of com­mu­ni­ca­tion equip­ment used by the New York field office for the United States Customs Service, and the destruc­tion of evi­dence stored in the New York field office for the United States Customs Service, which was to be used in crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tions;
h. The destruc­tion of the offices of the New York field divi­sion of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the loss of 15 vehi­cles used by the ATF to fight crime, the destruc­tion of the region­al firearms cen­ter used to exam­ine all firearms col­lect­ed as evi­dence by the ATF as well as approx­i­mate­ly 400 firearms which had been seized as evi­dence in crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tions, and the destruc­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 100 weapons used by ATF Special Agents to fight crime;
i. The destruc­tion of the offices of the New York field divi­sion of the Internal Revenue Service, the loss of 7 vehi­cles used by the Internal Revenue Service to fight crime, and the destruc­tion of evi­dence stored in the New York field office of the Internal Revenue Service;
j. The destruc­tion of the offices of the New York field divi­sion of the Office of Inspector General (Office of Investigation) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the loss of 5 vehi­cles used by HUD, the destruc­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 46 weapons used by HUD to fight crime, and the destruc­tion of evi­dence stored in the New York field office of HUD, which was to be used in crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tions;
k. The destruc­tion of the Office of Emergency Operations Center, which was designed to coor­di­nate the response to large-scale emer­gen­cies in the City of New York;
l. The dis­rup­tion of ser­vice on train and sub­way lines, includ­ing the E line, sub­way lines 1 and 9, and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) lines;
m. The clo­sure of parks, play­grounds, and schools in low­er Manhattan;
n. The dis­place­ment of busi­ness­es locat­ed in the World Trade Center and the eco­nom­ic harm to each of the busi­ness­es;
o. The dis­rup­tion of tele­phone ser­vice in Manhattan;
p. The destruc­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 12 mil­lion square feet of office space;
q. Property loss cost­ing sev­er­al bil­lion dol­lars;
r. The tem­po­rary clo­sure of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX);
s. The tem­po­rary clo­sure of state and fed­er­al cour­t­hous­es in Manhattan; and,
t. The delay of the meet­ing of the United Nations General Assembly and a spe­cial meet­ing of the United Nations called to address UNICEF issues.

6. The actions of defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, were intend­ed to cause, and in fact did cause, tremen­dous dis­rup­tion to the func­tion of the Pentagon as evinced by the following:

a. The destruc­tion of the Naval Command Center and the loss of the major­i­ty of its staff;
b. The destruc­tion of the Naval Intelligence Plot and the loss of the major­i­ty of its staff;
c. The destruc­tion of the Army Resource Management Center and the loss of the major­i­ty of its staff;
d. The destruc­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 400,000 square feet and the dam­age of over 1 mil­lion square feet of office space;
e. The destruc­tion of a por­tion of the Pentagon, which had just been ren­o­vat­ed at the cost of more than $250 mil­lion; and,
f. The destruc­tion of com­put­ers, oth­er tech­no­log­i­cal equip­ment, fur­ni­ture, and safes specif­i­cal­ly designed for use by the Pentagon because of its unique role as the cen­ter of mil­i­tary oper­a­tions for the United States of America.

7. The defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, has demon­strat­ed a lack of remorse for his criminal conduct.

The Government fur­ther gives notice that in sup­port of impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty it intends to rely upon all the evi­dence admit­ted by the Court at the guilt phase of the tri­al and the offens­es of con­vic­tion as described in the Indictment as they relate to the back­ground and char­ac­ter of the defen­dant, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, his moral cul­pa­bil­i­ty, and the nature and cir­cum­stances of the offens­es charged in the Indictment.

Respectfully sub­mit­ted,

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Paul J. McNulty
United States Attorney
Eastern District of Virginia

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James B. Comey
United States Attorney
Southern District of New York