US: Six relatives of September 11th victims testified with religious allusions and cracking voices on behalf of Zacarias Moussaoui at his death-penalty trial, telling jurors that they believed an affirmation of life rather than vengeance was the best way to honour the memory of those who died.
"Every day we miss him," said Donald Bane of Wyoming, on Wednesday of his son Michael, who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center. "But to do things that promote life, that's what I think our lives ought to be about now.
"One of the things the Bible explains is the fallen nature of human beings, that we're all sinners and we are all broken, broken people," said Robin Theurkauf of Stamford, Connecticut, whose husband, Tom (44), worked in the south tower. "But on the other side, we're all children of God, and loved by God."
Moussaoui, as he has throughout the trial, played the villain. At a court recess immediately following Ms Theurkauf's words, he repeated one of his favourite lines, shouting: "God curse you!" as he was escorted from the courtroom.
While family witnesses are not permitted to say whether they think Moussaoui should be executed, testimony over the last two days revealed a clear division among them. More than three dozen appeared for the prosecution, and told jurors their lives were almost irretrievably damaged by September 11th attacks.
"We all have a very strong feeling we are not going to get caught up in a whirlpool of sadness, frustration and anger," testified Marilynn Rosenthal, whose son Josh died in the Twin Towers.
Later, outside the courthouse, Ms Rosenthal, a professor at the University of Michigan, said she opposed the death penalty for Moussaoui because he was a "marginal" figure, far less important than planners the US is holding in overseas prisons. "Moussaoui is the wrong person to be on trial," she said.
Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French-Moroccan arrested at a flight school because of suspicious behaviour in August 2001, pleaded guilty last year to being part of an al-Qaeda hijacking plot. His defence team, against his wishes, has argued that he is seeking martyrdom, and called the second of two experts to testify that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)