MYSTERY JUROR SAVES TERRORIST FROM DEATH SENTENCE

Recently, Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man to be tried for the 911 attacks, was found guilty. He was up for the death penalty but didn't get it. Instead, he'll spend the rest of his life in prison. Here's my take on this real quick:

1) He struck me as a loser who tried to play up his importance. My guess is that he was hoping to get the death penalty so he would become a martyr, both so he could get his 72 virgins and so his "cause" could use him as a poster child.

2) The death penalty is wrong except in very rare and very extreme cases. All life is sacred in my mind and anyone who is against war on those grounds or against abortion on those grounds should not be able to support the death penalty.

3) What good would killing this guy do? He wasn't one of the 911 hijackers. He was the loser who got caught before 911. He's not even directly responsible for the attacks.

OK, that aside, it's interesting to note how his sentence came about. Here's a clip from [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2177929,00.html|a May 12, 2006 article] at http://TimesOnline.co.uk that describes a bit of a mystery:

A unanimous vote on just one of the three charges would have condemned Moussaoui to execution. The foreman said that, in a series of secret ballots, the panel voted 11-1, 10-2 and 10-2 in favour of his being killed by lethal injection.

She said that the dissenter repeatedly held out on the first charge and never identified him or herself. On the third day of deliberations the process nearly broke down, the female maths teacher from Northern Virginia revealed.

There had been repeated 11-1 votes on one charge, but because the ballot was anonymous, and the dissenter kept quiet, no one could identify who was responsible.

She revealed that discussions among the jury appeared resolutely pro-death penalty, but every time they went to a vote, at least one person would veto the execution.

That's really cool. Someone on that jury stuck to their guns and I admire them for that more than they could know. The natural instinct for a human being is to go with the pack--to lie, even if they know it is wrong, just because everyone else in the group is lying, too. I've seen it happen in psyche class and in the wild. People would rather belong than be right.

So, to that juror, I say this: THANK YOU and YOU ROCK!

I just wish more of us could be more like you!