Moussaoui Eligible For Execution

Jury Decides Al Qaeda Conspirator Was Responsible For At Least One 9/11 Death

(CBS/AP)  A federal jury found al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible Monday to be executed, deciding that his lies to FBI agents led directly to at least one death in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"You'll never get my blood, God curse you all," Moussaoui said afterward. He had sat in his chair and prayed silently as the verdict was read.

Even before the jury entered the courtroom around 4 p.m., Moussaoui seemed riled up, and more animated than usual. He could be heard chanting and yelling from behind an interior door, CBS' Stephanie Lambidakis reports.

The only person to face charges in this country in the nation's worst terrorist assault, Moussaoui now faces a second phase of his sentencing trial to determine if he actually will be put to death. That phase is to begin Thursday morning.

The nine men and three women of the jury will hear testimony on whether the 37-year-old Frenchman, who was in jail at the time of the attack, deserves to be executed for his role.

It was a total victory for the government. Any one "no" vote would have sent Moussaoui to prison for life and could have evaded a second trial, CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart reports.

The testimony will include families of 9/11 victims who will describe the human impact of the al Qaeda mission that flew four jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Using models of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, family members are expected to illustrate where their loved ones were that day, Stewart reports. All the names of the victims of that attack will be read aloud and all of their pictures shown.

Court-appointed defense lawyers, whom Moussaoui has tried to reject, will summon experts to suggest he is schizophrenic after an impoverished childhood during which he faced racism in France over his Moroccan ancestry. He may be portrayed as someone who wants to die and gain fame in al Qaeda, according to Stewart.

"By this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in this case," court spokesman Edward Adams said.

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Watch the jury's decision being announced.
Stewart reports from the courthouse.

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On the key question before the jurors, they answered yes on whether at least one victim died Sept. 11 as a direct result of Moussaoui's actions. Another was the value to the government of the information Moussaoui could have provided, says CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen.

"By endorsing the link between a terror trainee who never contacted any of the 19 actual 9/11 hijackers ... the panel rejected defense claims that our government was so blind, deaf and dumb before 9/11 that it would not have been able to properly process information from Moussaoui no matter how dramatic his story might have been back then," Cohen said.

On the key question before the jurors, they answered yes on whether at least one victim died Sept. 11 as a direct result of Moussaoui's actions.