Jury Finds Moussaoui Eligible for Execution

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 3 — A federal jury found today that Zacarias Moussaoui was responsible for at least some of the deaths that occurred in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, meaning that he could be subject to the death penalty.

In concluding unanimously today that the defendant lied to federal agents after his arrest in August 2001, that he did so contemplating that human life would be taken, and that at least one victim of the Sept. 11 attacks died as a direct result of his deception, the jurors said death should at least be considered as the appropriate punishment.

The jury of nine men and three women now move into the next phase of the sentencing trial, in which they will decide whether he should actually be executed by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Before reaching that decision, the jurors will hear evidence of factors both favorable and unfavorable to the defendant. Relatives of Sept. 11 victims will be among those testifying.