Moussaoui Sentencing Jury Chosen

The sentencing trial of terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui opened Monday with the selection of a jury that will determine whether he is put to death for conspiring with the al Qaeda terrorist network in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema seated 12 jurors and six alternates after a 90-minute process that winnowed down the field from a group of more than 80.

However, one of the 18 was struck shortly after selection for personal reasons, leaving 10 men and 7 women. It's not know which are the alternates.

Sixteen of the jurors are white, said

None of the jurors looked at Moussaoui, he added.

Opening statements were expected Monday afternoon, as was testimony from the first witness.

Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen, has acknowledged his loyalty to the al Qaeda terrorist network and his intent to commit acts of terrorism, but denies any prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot.

His mother, Aicha el-Wafi, spoke up for her son in a television interview. "All they can have against him is the things that he said, the words that he has used," she said, "but actual acts that he committed, there aren't any."

Prosecutors and defense lawyers used peremptory strikes, which allow each side to dismiss jurors for any reason they choose except their race or sex, to whittle the pool down to the final 18 jurors and alternates.

The jury pool already had been qualified to serve during a two-week process in which prospects were quizzed individually by Brinkema and filled out 50-page questionnaires asking their views about the death penalty, al Qaeda, the FBI and their reactions to the Sept. 11 attacks.

"This is going to be a long tough ride for this jury, reports CBS News correspondent Barry Bagnato (audio). "All live within a short drive of the Pentagon, where 184 people died on Sept. 11. Prosecutors are sure to try to tap into the jurors' memories of that day — and their emotions."

Arrangements for the trial have been years in the making. Victims of the terrorist attacks and their families can watch the trial on closed-circuit television at federal courthouses in Boston, Central Islip, N.Y., Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and in Alexandria, thanks to legislation passed in Congress.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al Qaeda to hijack planes and commit other crimes. The trial will determine Moussaoui's punishment, and only two options are available: death or life in prison.

To win the death penalty, they must convince the panel Moussaoui knew about the 9/11 attack plans, and kept details from FBI agents, reports Bagnato. Moussaoui admits training to fly a plane for a terrorist attack, but not, he says, on Sept. 11.

To do that, prosecutors will be pulling out all the stops, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart.

More than 8,000 family members were questioned. All 2,972 victims will be identified in a day-long video roll call played for the jury.

Gigantic scale models of the Trade Towers and Pentagon will be rolled into court so victims' families may show precisely where their loved ones worked that day.

For the first time in public the voice cockpit recorder which captured passengers' attempts to re-take Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania will be played, as well as messages left at home by trapped victims in the World Trade Center.

Almost 200 witnesses are expected in a trial lasting one to three months, says Stewart.

Prosecutors will try to link Moussaoui to 9/11 by arguing that the FBI would have prevented the attacks if only Moussaoui had told the truth to the FBI about his terrorist links when he was arrested in August 2001.

Moussaoui's team will agree that, yes, he belonged to al Qaeda, but he wasn't part of Sept. 11. The government had plenty of warning about 9/11 without him, they'll say, and they still missed all the signs.