Might a military jury deny 9/11 suspect's death wish?

Under military commission rules, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed cannot plead guilty to a crime that carries the death penalty, even though he wants it. And a military jury might be less likely than a civilian one to grant his wish.

His words leave little doubt about his role. It is his punishment that remains uncertain.

Four years ago, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed not only brazenly portrayed himself as mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The senior Al Qaeda operative also bragged to a U.S. military tribunal that he had directed other major terrorist attacks around the globe.

Mohammed claimed responsibility for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, for the "shoe bomber" attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner in 2001, for the deadly bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia, for planned assassination attempts against Pope John Paul II and President Clinton, and for aborted attacks in London, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

He even boasted that he had personally decapitated Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head," Mohammed said.

But it's not clear whether his confessions, which mirrored those he made after being waterboarded 183 times by CIA interrogators in 2003, can be used against him in military court. Moreover, now that the Justice Department has transferred his case and that of his four alleged co-conspirators to a military commission at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, winning a death sentence may not come easy.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: The Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2011

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