Moussaoui attempts to change plea refused

aidan_walsh

Searched for this but turned up nothing, so it may have slipped under the radar. Interesting turn up for the books...

AOL News says:

Stunned that he was sentenced to life in prison rather than execution, Zacarias Moussaoui now believes he could get a fair trial from an American jury. Too late, the judge says.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema quickly rejected a motion the confessed al-Qaida conspirator filed Monday to withdraw his guilty plea and get a new trial.

In his motion, Moussaoui said he lied on the witness stand March 27 when he reversed four years of denials and claimed he was to have hijacked a fifth jetliner on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed it into the White House, "even though I knew that was a complete fabrication."

The 37-year-old Frenchman blamed his behavior on the effects of solitary confinement, his inability to get a Muslim lawyer and his misunderstanding of the U.S. justice system.

Moussaoui said he was "extremely surprised" by his life sentence by a federal court jury last week.

"I had thought I would be sentenced to death based on the emotions and anger toward me for the deaths on Sept. 11," he explained in an affidavit. "But after reviewing the jury verdict and reading how the jurors set aside their emotions and disgust for me and focused on the law and the evidence ... I now see that it is possible that I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors."

...

On Monday, Brinkema said federal rules prohibit withdrawing a guilty plea after sentencing so his request must be rejected.

Manic Moran

Nothing to see here... The principle is pretty simple. If you decide after the fact that you don't like the punishment, and that you would have been better off at trial, it would make something of a mess of the system. People would be withdrawing pleas (both guilty and not guilty) after verdict left, right and center in the hopes of either reduced sentences or an overturn.

NTM

aidan_walsh

I was hardly surprised by the judge turning him down, but the sudden change of heart was a bit odd. Then again, given what he is facing, maybe not.

But still, the idea of "I reckon I won't get a fair trial and they'll kill me, so lets just tell them what they want to hear - and make it as good as possible"... WTF?

zuma

aidan_walsh wrote:

I was hardly surprised by the judge turning him down, but the sudden change of heart was a bit odd. Then again, given what he is facing, maybe not.

But still, the idea of "I reckon I won't get a fair trial and they'll kill me, so lets just tell them what they want to hear - and make it as good as possible"... WTF?

It makes sense!

He wanted to becomes a martyr so by digging deep enough he assumed the death penalty was a certain outcome.

Apears he was wrong!

Hobbes

Hes getting life in solitary instead of just life. He won't have any marbles left after 6-7 months.