Angry judge questions U.S. death case against Moussaoui

An angry federal judge abruptly adjourned the sentencing trial of al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui on Monday and is considering whether to declare a mistrial or drop the death penalty as an option.

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A lawyer for the Transportation Safety Administration, Carla Martin, e-mailed transcripts to witnesses, prosecutors disclosed Monday in a letter to the judge and Moussaoui's defense.

According to letter, seven current and former employees of the Federal Aviation Administration were sent transcripts from last week's opening statements and first four days of testimony.

Brinkema said the e-mails "blatantly" violated her February 22 order stating that no trial witness "may attend or otherwise follow trial proceedings, such as read transcripts, before they are called to testify."

Martin is a government lawyer but is not on the prosecution team.

"We cannot control the actions of an attorney from the FAA," prosecutor Robert Spencer argued.

The affected witnesses include Lynne Osmus, who became the FAA's assistant administrator for security and hazardous materials in 2003, and her deputy, Claudio Mano.

Three of the FAA witnesses are on the government's witness list, and four are on the defense's. "It's half our case," a member of the defense team said.

I haven't quite had time to really decide what to make of this particular twist but this makes already unimpressive goverment's handling of this case look almost comical. I am actually wondering where that TSA lawyer got those transcripits. They are public, I would guess - but an attorney clearly ought to know better than to share them with prospective witnesses. Unless that was deliberate - in which case that same attorney did a very poor job of covering her tracks.

Be that as it may - I am astounded. And I spent about three years working for the government so it is not that easy to astound me with incompetence.

tags: incompetence  trial  moussaoui  law