12 Sensible Men

To my surprise, Zacarias Moussaoui has not been sentenced to death. Instead, the jury gave him life imprisonment. I’m sure many people will see this as a baffling decision. After all, the man said he had “no regret, no remorse” about his involvement in the 9/11 plot and during the trial seemed to revel in ...

To my surprise, Zacarias Moussaoui has not been sentenced to death. Instead, the jury gave him life imprisonment. I’m sure many people will see this as a baffling decision. After all, the man said he had “no regret, no remorse” about his involvement in the 9/11 plot and during the trial seemed to revel in discomforting the victims' families.

To my surprise, Zacarias Moussaoui has not been sentenced to death. Instead, the jury gave him life imprisonment. I’m sure many people will see this as a baffling decision. After all, the man said he had “no regret, no remorse” about his involvement in the 9/11 plot and during the trial seemed to revel in discomforting the victims' families.

It seems like the right choice to me, though. (I should admit that I’m pretty much totally opposed to the death penalty). As Alec Russell of the Daily Telegraph wrote during the trial sending Mousssaoui to jail for life would make him not the martyr he aspires to be, but a “living symbol of justice and proof that the wheels of justice may grind slowly, but they do grind.”

James Forsyth is assistant editor at Foreign Policy.

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